Re: Graphics/Text Overlap - HTML Editors good or bad?

> But what if the tool you expected to be a drill turned out to be a saw?
> *That* is the problem with these editors. They DO NOT write valid HTML and
> those who purchase these "tools" usually tend to expect a product that
> creates a reliable working page. On their own - these caned editors do not
> do that. As to faster, again, I have found it faster to do it right the
> first time than to do it two or three times wrong first.

No offense taken,  I knew I might be stirring up a hornets nest, and I agree
with most of what your saying, at least the sentiment for building proper
web pages.  I take exception to the idea that editors are inherently a bad
tool.  This is like saying a hammer is a bad tool.  A hammer is a bad tool
when opening a paint can, but its the right tool when installing asphalt
shingles on a roof.  (provided its a roofing hammer)

You made my point when you brought up HotMetal's own DTD's.  If you use an
appropriate DTD it works fine.  If you use their proprietary DTD it is way
too forgiving.  With the right DTD it tells you when your writing bad code,
and fixes most mistakes on the fly.  About the only thing it won't fix is
improper nesting of tags.
<.FONT> <.B>Hello<./FONT><./B>   Unfortunately SoftQuad is no longer
supporting HotMetal.  They have put their full potential behind XMetal
because they are betting XML is here to stay.

Now we can get into an argument as to what is "proper" code.  Every code
checker I know barfs on this:

<.BODY MARGINWIDTH="0" MARGINHEIGHT="0" LEFTMARGIN="0" TOPMARGIN="0">

Is it bad code because the WWWC says it is?  Nonsense!  I use this in almost
all my websites and it works for all recent browsers.  I don't like that
little bit of whitespace at top and on the sides... it detracts from the
look and it takes up unnecessary screen turf.  I also get customers that
want this look.  What am I to do, say "sorry - the WWWC says it's naughty?"

These and several other tags that are also built into most browsers yet are
not supported by the WWWC.  I test my pages against the browsers and check
for backward compatibility too.  I have had very few surprises.  We all want
to stretch ourselves and put nice looking touches into our WebPages.  We
have to compete against others.  The WWWC has good intentions and many good
ideas, but they don't sign my paycheck.

To be honest there are too many sanctimonious people out there telling us
what the standards are when they need to convince the browsers companies
first, not us.  Is it any wonder that some companies may build imperfect
HTML Editors?  Will the REAL web standard please stand up!  Is it XML, is it
HTML 4.01 or 3.2, I am still wondering about the undelivered  promises of
DHTML and a few other older standards that never got implemented into all
browsers.

I mean what was wrong with the <.center> tag anyway?  Now we have to use
<.div align="center">   Who is the idiot that thought THAT one up?  Did it
improve my life?  Am I supposed to go back and make FREE changes to all
those websites that I built using <.center> ?     How about <.BR>   Is
<.br></.br>   or   <.br /> the correct standard?  It depends on which
standard I am looking at.  Gimme a break.

Homesite 4.5 has a built-in WYSIWYG editor function now.  It also has Tiny
as a built-in code checker.  You can also use it as a standard text editor
if you prefer to stay in that mode most  or all of the time.  As you type
tags, it automatically completes the tag.  Start typing "<BL" and it will
give you the option of accepting <.blockquote><./blockquote>  I have it set
for all lower case letters myself.

Another thing people are not looking at is the future.  As XML continues to
move in several directions and database driven websites become more the
norm, we are going to be forced into using the tools that will be coming
out.  No human will be able to keep up.

Now that Netscape is about 10% of all viewers, I think future standards are
going to come from the land of Mickey$oft as handed down to us by the
Prophet Bill Gates.  The future may bite us on the ASP.

Paul Wilson
webgooru(at)gte.net

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