RE: Web Design

>>And this means to know HTML, DHTML, CSS and eventually on a near future
>>Pearl, CGI and some other stuff like XML, doesn't it?
>
>I could create a web page in two minutes without writing a single line of
>HTML. You don't need to know any of the above.

Yes, you could. The difference here is in quality and functionality.

>No. You have GUI tools. You can drag-and-drop, apply styles, do
>all sorts of
>clever stuff. Creating a HTML page is as easy as writing a letter in a word
>processor. A basic knowledge of the tool would be advantageous, but
>knowledge of HTML is superfluous.

Yes. From the first post I knew you were talking about that. Only I tried to
drive the discussion to other grounds. But if you insist...

GUI tools are not the best choice to your coding. At least right now. You
can't presume that on their first stages, this tools are already capable of
solving all your needs. They aren't! Worst most of the things they do, they
do it badly! Not only they go against standards but also they build giant
pages full of redundant code that increases download times and contribute to
bandwidth problems and actually create bad and erroneous code.
The original post was about pursuing web design as a career. Your advice
seems to me far from good. Even *bad*.

A good professional must have deep knowledge of his career. It's insensible
to think another way.

Most probably, on a near(?) future, your advice should apply promptly. But
get real! Do you really think that we already have the tools to say "GUI
it's the answer to Web design Business"???

>
>>Picking up your own signature "Imagination is more important than
>>knowledge", we must agree that A. Einstein it's correct on what concerns
>the
>>first stages of the Scientific Process. But it's also true that it was his
>>knowledge that made him capable of prove his famous theory, not
>imagination.
>>Wouldn't you agree?
>
>Yes... and...?

and this means that it's *knowledge* that enables implementation of the
ideas. God! I didn't thought that this had to be explained.
A deep knowledge of HTML (a good one also serves most purposes) will enable
anyone to solve most of nowadays problems.

>>> Why do you need to know the nuts-and-bolts of HTML? If you were
>>> designing a
>>> paper-based publication, would you learn the underlying file formats of
>>> Word, or Quark, or whatever? I don't think so (although that stuff is
>kind
>>> of interesting in its own right).
>>
>>A very crude (read *bad*) comparison. Just because the "underlying format"
>>of Word must, in the same way, compare to DTD specification and syntax and
>>not to very good knowledge of HTML.
>
>Well I think my understanding of HTML has been improved because I
>can read a
>DTD. But I don't *need* to know HTML or SGML to create a web page. Four
>years ago I did. Today I don't.

And you are right, off course. What I'm talking about here, it's that this
is not yet the time to think about GUI on the Web Design Business.
Please, read again the original post... Now, think a little about your
knowledge of today's GUI tools...Do you still really want to consider this
tools??

>>After all this is more like a flame attempt, no?
>
>Well Harold and I have been disagreeing for two years now, off and
>on, and I
>figure he can take the "dig". Especially if he remembers that I write HTML
>in a text editor and I wouldn't touch a GUI editor with a ten-foot pole. I
>think *I'm* a "purist", but my point was that you don't need to be because
>there are a number of mature tools around that will do the hard work for
>you.

Hmm, I think you have close my case here.
Curious the "wouldn't touch a GUI editor with a ten-foot pole" (up there)
and "knowledge of HTML is superfluous" (on your original post). I guess this
comes as a contradiction, even at the light of this last statement.

To use one method and knowing it's the best and to advice on another method
knowing even you wouldn't touch it, really seems like a "Devil's advocate"
action.

Regards,
Mario Figueiredo

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