Web Design: Dreamweaver vs custom HTML

Question

Hello,

I've been having this discussion with my brother, and it looks like none of us is well qualified to answer the question.

n fact, since I've been learning ASP.Net MVC, I've the impression that I should create all my .aspx pages using HTML/CSS. He (my brother) sustains that - in the modern day - we should not spend to much time on HTML/CSS because there are software (like Dreamweaver) which do just that.

Although I do more of the server side coding, I think it's important to settle this matter for further orientation.

By the way, in case I should use Dreamweaver-designed pages, how would I integrate them in my ASPNET-MVC project?

Thanks for helping

Answer 1

This is the classic discussion pro/against html generation, and just by asking the question you risk the post being closed as "subjective" =)

Basically, you have to decide whether you want simplicity in your work creating the code, or in the code itself.

• Dreamweaver (and every other WYSIWYG HTML tool I've ever encountered) will generate a lot of extra code, which will make it harder to incorporate your server side code - simply because there's a larger mess to navigate in.
• On the other hand, creating the HTML page might be a lot faster than writing the code by hand.

If you're good at using a WYSIWYG editor, be it Dreamweaver, the built-in one in Visual Studio or some other one, you might benefit from drawing up the rough scetches in that. I would recommend, though, that you always do the finishing by hand, in the code. That's the only way you can retain complete control over your output.

Answer 2

From a purist perspective, unless you can already code your HTML, CSS and JavaScript by hand you shouldn't use a tool that does it for you.

Tools are very valuable at making your more productive, but the experience to know when they screw up is more valuable.

Answer 3

Well, the answer is pretty simple. Dreamweaver is just a glorified code editor with autocomplete, the ability to connect to FTP and upload your work within the program, and a unique "design view" which lets you move coded objects around with your mouse and also give you a visual representation of what your work looks like without opening a full browser. It doesn't matter if you use Notepad, Dreamweaver, or another code editor to create your code. For a fact, I know a lot of ASP/.NET programmers just use MS Visual Studio to do their work because ASP/.NET is simply a MS language and Visual Studio supports a lot of tools which ASP/.NET programmers find useful. That said, you can still code ASP/.NET with any other code editor, it just may be more manual or time consuming on your part to do so. You said "Dreamweaver-designed pages" and all this is is just a document coded with Dreamweaver being used as the code editor, there are no Dreamweaver specifics that would add to the document. Unfortunately, your bother does not seem to understand the differences or the complexities between programs or programming languages and vice-a-versa where they are similar. Whether you are programming for HTML or ASP/.NET, making a stylesheet with CSS, your project being server-side or client-side, it is always good practice to use standard markup and make sure all your work is cross-browser compatible with a strong influence on being compatible with IE. Just remember that most of all code is done by hand, and the reason for this is because the programmer needs to fact check everything he/she is doing to minimize errors and create an efficient document or program. Unfortunately again, a program just cannot do as good a job of realizing the ultimate coding goal than that of a human brain can achieve. Oh, and by the way, unless you are creating a simple document and utlizing only CSS to design that document, leave the design up to the designer.

Answer 4

Tomas is on the money with his comments. Your brother's notion that in the "modern day" you shouldn't have to mess with the code is sadly not true. The tools that we have for html/css/web development will get you only so far. You will likely be able to build a "functioning" site with any of them individually or in combination but to get the real fit and finish that you see in a excellent application you will be working in code as well.

Moreover, you have chosen ASP.NET MVC which for ASP is a pretty thin abstraction layer and works pretty close to the metal. It was designed as a framework for folks who do a lot of the code by hand and with minimal wizardry. The tooling at this point reflects that. The tooling will stub you out a basic application, but the rest you do either outside VS2008 or by hand in the VS2008 editor.

If you are "starting to learn" MVC as you said, your workflow will probably start off by using the framework code generated by VS, so now are working in VS2008. The html editor in VS2008 is limited to say the least, so if you want some more wizard driven development of css or html for your views you may work on a view page or a html snippet in Dreamweaver, Expression or your some other editor. You'll then be dropping that code back in VS2008 and doing more work there to link up the view to the controller.

As you get more of an understanding of the css and html you will use the wizards and dialog driven stuff in Dreamweaver less and less simply because it is faster to just open up the code and make the change.