Posted by Ben C on 05/10/07 09:18

On 2007-05-10, bigdaddybs <bidarsan@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

Fair enough, it sounds like you've worked out how to make good use of
some of the features of FP while working around the downsides.

I should not have said "only used by novices". All the same, I would
think people who use it the way you do are not in the majority.

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