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Posted by bigdaddybs on 05/10/07 08:07
On May 10, 3:08 am, Ben C <spams...@spam.eggs> wrote:
> On 2007-05-09, dorayme <doraymeRidT...@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> > In article <2Cn0i.39$SI1...@newsfe06.lga>,
> > "Woody Dawson" <woodrow...@msn.com> wrote:
>
> >> Hi,
>
> >> I'm new to web design and have just started an intro class. My teacher wants
> >> us to start out by using notepad to create some HTML pages. Just wondering
> >> why do it this way? Is it not easier to use Frontpage, etc.?
>
> > In most airforces, they begin training with recruits on the
> > ground where they cannot kill themselves or others.
>
> > The reason your teacher is doing this is - at the very least -
> > because you won't know what can go wrong with Frontpage until you
> > can get by without it.
>
> Some of these analogies imply that once the novice has found his HTML
> legs he can safely go back to using Frontpage. But no-one does that,
> they just graduate from notepad to a better text editor. The only people
> who use Frontpage are novices who don't know better.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
This is patently false. Yes... As a novice, I used Frontpage to create
my webpages, exclusively. But, I also was curious enough about HTML to
learn it, by reading various sites, postings, etc., and learn what FP
was adding that shouldn't be there. That was 10 years ago.
I still use FP, but am very careful about what it does to the source,
removing anything (except in forms, which I haven't taken the time to
learn) that FP adds extraniously, or adding what it doesn't. I set it
up so it will create most of the HTML as I want to see it. I use it to
create my template, switching between all the tabs - Normal (where
most of the page is created), HTML (or SOURCE, if you will, where I
edit the HTML that DOESN'T do what I want it to), and Preview (which
shows the page in a version of IE.) I check it in FF and I check it
directly in IE (currently v7) if it's a new layout, to make sure it
will work for the majority of internet users. I also run the CSS and
HTML through the validaters to make sure they conform. (Most pages do
so, unless I've cut-and-pasted from an email - to show examples - or
have created a form.) I then use FP to publish the changed pages - It
modifies all links to the online version for me.
Now that I have my site up and running cleanly, I use FP to create new
pages, using stripped down versions of various pages (templates), edit
pages that link them, and publish the new and updated pages.
I DO understand the "text only" alternative, but would think a WYSIWYG
would be enormously helpful in creating prototype and example pages
(templates), THEN use the "direct HTML editing" of those pages, if you
insist. AND, you are correct in that WYSIWYG editors (all of them)
will add code, if you aren't careful, that isn't needed, or will leave
out tags you DO need for validations.
If you learned text-based editing, and are happy doing it that way,
more power to you, but DO NOT claim that WYSIWYG editors (of which FP
is only one) are ONLY used by "novices who don't know better."
And the paragraph about knowing what can go wrong with them by
learning HTML by using a text editor is correct. Learn the correct way
to do it, then you can play around with WYS... editors, see what each
of them do wrong, and make an informed choice.
As it is, I started with FP 10 years ago, and am still using it. I'm
happy using it the way I do, and am sure, if required by a permanent
position somewhere, I could learn any other editor, WYS, text, or
whatever, based on what I've learned using it.
Am I an expert? No... There's a lot of things I would like to learn
(mostly having to do with PROGRAMMING for the web)... But, I am also
nowhere near a Novice.
BDBS
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