What is currently the best way to code a (semi complicated) website that uses html, css, javascript and some server stuff (php?)? Would you code most of it by hand, use a visual editor for certains parts, are there standard quality editors nowadays? How do web developers go about doing this?
A:
I'm a fan of just using Microsoft Word and saving as HTML. I figure that's good enough!
PSU_Kardi
2010-05-25 13:58:27
**Please**, no.
SLaks
2010-05-25 14:01:08
I prefer to hand-write my code, take a picture of it with my webcam, convert the resulting jpg to pdf, and then use OCR to convert the code to text. Only then do I save it to HTML. :-p
David Murdoch
2010-05-25 14:02:40
Wow, I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Thanks Dave!
PSU_Kardi
2010-05-25 17:54:47
A:
I always code by hand in Visual Studio.
However, that doesn't mean that you should.
SLaks
2010-05-25 13:59:12
A:
I code by hand and use CSS for layout and formatting. Visual editors have a tendency to create too much crud.
Otávio Décio
2010-05-25 13:59:14
A:
It's entirely personal preference, but I code by hand because I don't want to forfeit power and flexibility to the arbitrary limitations of WYSIWYG editor.
Dolph
2010-05-25 13:59:19
A:
After I first saw Word-exported HTML I felt lucky to be able to create semi-complex sites by hand in the same amount of time (or even less).
The MYYN
2010-05-25 14:00:05
+5
A:
It is's even remotely "semi-complicated", then develop it by hand. You must ensure you have full control on the markup and behavior, to be able to make it work with any browser, and to be able to maintain it later. You can however use visual aids to develop it.
Palantir
2010-05-25 14:00:18
Given the differences between browsers and even between installations of the same browser, a visual editor is at best going to give you yet another different rendering. So if the visual editor does not give you a picture of how the page will look in general, why use it?
mpez0
2010-05-25 14:11:29
A visual editor will usually use a consolidated engine (IE, FF, etc...), so it's quite possible that it will match one of the browsers you are targeting. Anyway, I was also referring to other amenities contained in visual editors, like a CSS editor or helper, which can be useful without polluting the code.
Palantir
2010-05-25 14:17:03
+2
A:
It depends completely on the type of site and how complicated it's going to be. For the small sites that I've made I'll usually find a simple HTML/CSS template and work off of that by hand until I have a finished product that I like.
Laplace
2010-05-25 14:00:46
+1
A:
Technically, I use a visual editor (Visual Studio) but in actuality, the only time I look at the Design View is when I'm checking visuals (at times it's quicker to look at Design View than to run the project and see it in the browser), or there are specific controls which are easier to get onto the page via the drag-drop function (i.e. custom server controls or the MS reporting control).
Stephen Wrighton
2010-05-25 14:01:57
A:
Coding by hand is the way to go, visual editors still server their purpose though, to either help you find things a bit faster when your working with multiple pages at once, or just get a feel of what your site looks like without having to F12 a preview.
Eddie
2010-05-25 14:02:04
A:
You should code by hand with a decent text editor, such as emacs, or any kind of decent development environment that provides a good editor. Using WYSIWYG editors invariably result in all sorts of spurious stuff you don't need, clutters the code, increases page size and potentially impacts your SEO.
Plus doing it by hand teaches you the language(s) and makes it easier to debug problems.
Richard
2010-05-25 14:03:26
A:
If you are not going to create static HTMLs, or if you have to maintain afterward, hand-code them all. With CSS and/or dynamic contents, your visual editors can't handle it neatly. As contrary to what people might think, websites which need to be handcrafted are those among the most complicated.
shinkou
2010-05-25 14:05:51
+1
A:
The easiest solution is usually to outline the basic layout in a WYSWYG editor. This gives you a feeling for how it will look and how users might interact with it. This allows you to quickly prototype and optimize for useability and allows you to test how the site might look with different colors, gradient backgrounds, blink tags, etc. without having to write it by hand.
After this i recommend to redo everything by hand as, as others mentioned, WYSWYG Editors add a lot of unneccessary formatting. Depending on the Editor you could also just clean up the code but that often takes as much time as rewriting it.
dbemerlin
2010-05-25 14:13:21