Re: hand-coding vrs WYSWYG

At 09:29 AM 13/12/00 -0500, you wrote:
I use Dreamweaver now, because I maintain a number of sites & it's easier=20
to fix
>simple text changes etc. with a WYSIWYG.  Their sitewide find & replace is=
 a
>godsend.  The only competitor they have is GoLive. Dreamweaver does leave=
 some
>old code in there from previous edits if you don't watch it.

I use Dreamweaver as well for part of my work but my background is hand=20
coding with HomeSite and I still use it most.  I disagree with you that=20
GoLive is competition to Dreamweaver though.  GoLive can't touch=20
Dreamweaver. As far as code quality and code bloat go it's even worse than=
=20
FrontPage and both programs are flawed in a way that wasn't addressed at=20
all in this thread.  FP looks and feels like a word processor and GoLive=20
tried to pass itself as PageMaker for the Web or something.  Both are ill=20
suited to the limitations and fluidity of the Web as a medium and give=20
designer a false sense of control.  I can't tell you how many times I've=20
seen designers dismayed because their pages were breaking in some browser=20
while it looked great in their editor and their favorite=20
browser.  Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG tool too but its interface and the way=20
it works make a lot more sense for Web work.  The HTML it produces is very=
=20
clean and its JavaScript if verbose and convoluted works cross browser and=
=20
cross platform.  That's more than I can say for FP and GoLive.

>Lately, I have been travelling a lot & have had to get an html editor on=20
>my old
>laptop that has a small HD.  I haven't found one yet (& I've tried a=
 lot)that
>compares to Dreamweaver. All these WYSIWYG's let you browse the code, but=
 not
>edit.  I tried Homesite (steep learning curve), and it mangled code with=
 their
>design mode. If someone can point me to a good one, point away.

I disabled design mode in HomeSite the same day I installed the first=20
version that had it (HS 4.0 I believe).  For your information, the Design=20
Mode component in HomeSite is driven by the same Microsoft component that's=
=20
at the heart of FP 2000.  No wonder it mangles code.  I know of no long=20
time HomeSite user that uses Design Mode and Allaire has taken a lot of=20
flack from angry users when it was introduced.  Disable it and give=20
HomeSite another try. You'll soon find out why it has been considered the=20
best HTML editor on Windows for years and still is.  I myself found=20
HomeSite easy to use from the moment I tried it.

>Time is money.  Hand coding is fine if that's what you like.
>Also, would you take your car to a mechanic who only knew how to replace=
 the
>parts?

What kind of weird analogy is that?  Knowing how to hand code gives you the=
=20
most control over how pages look and behave. Someone who relies exclusively=
=20
on any WYSIWYG tool is giving away control even if they have the exact=20
opposite impression.  No WYSIWYG tool is perfect and sometimes they have to=
=20
guess at what you want to do and do not produce the most efficient code to=
=20
achieve a specific result.  If you know HTML well you can get your pages to=
=20
behave in a much more predictable way.  Total pixel precision control in=20
every situation on the Web is impossible anyway.  Accepting this fact is a=
=20
large part of the battle and knowing how things work under the hood is most=
=20
of it.

It's not a matter of hand coding being fine if that's what I like.  I don't=
=20
care particularly for typing long documents in HTML even if HomeSite makes=
=20
a lot of the grunt work easier.  But it definitely is a matter of using the=
=20
best tool to achieve the best and most predictable result and having things=
=20
done right the first time with minimal tweaking.  For that, there's no=20
substitute to hand coding but I still find Dreamweaver UltraDev very useful=
=20
as it doesn't mess up my code and produces surprisingly good code=20
itself.  A year ago I wasn't using Dreamweaver.  Now I couldn't work=20
without it and HomeSite.  I often work with both opened at the same time=20
and that has sped up my work flow considerably.  The new Dreamweaver 4.0=20
has also improved its code editing capabilities substantially (color=20
coding, line numbering, JavaScript debugger, split code/design view, access=
=20
to panels and inspectors while in code view, etc).  I find myself using it=
=20
without HS more and more but I still get my hands dirty a lot... ;-)

St=E9phane Bergeron

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