Boyink! - Spring Forward on the Web

We hand-code our hyper-text markup language or HTML web pages, the fundamental programming language of the world wide web.

I was looking at the website of a company who, like me, creates websites for other companies.  Their site had a statement much like the one I grabbed off a quick Google search above - making a big deal out of the fact that they hand code their web pages.

It got me to thinking - among geeks this sort of thing has always been of a “badge of honor”, turning one’s nose up at web software like Microsoft Frontpage or Macromedia Dreamweaver as those products have been criticized adding unneccesary code that added to a page’s download time and made maintenance and updates harder.  The “real geek” would use a simple text editing tool like Microsoft’s Notepad and with no help from wizards, macros, templates, or “webbots” crank out web pages with clear, clean code.

But these “We Hand Code” pages aren’t aimed at the geek crowd, they’re aimed at a non-technical business crowd who, by nature of being there and reading the page, don’t have the knowledge of what comprises clean HTML or what benefits hand-coding might bring them.

I wonder - does it send the right message?  Instead of saying “we produce clear, clean, elegant code that downloads quickly so fewer people leave your site because they didn’t want to wait” does it say “we do it by hand so it takes longer and we can bill more”?

What would be our reaction to other businesses that eschewed tools for working by hand?  Cleaners that leave the vaccum cleaners at home…builders that used only handsaws…roofers still swinging a hammer…

I think I’d rather try to promote the goal, and keep looking for the most efficient route to get there. 

So for the record, I have that same goal of clean, elegant code, but with as little hand-coding as possible.  The less I hand-code the quicker I can produce your site, and lower your bill will be.

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

1. Heiser Erwin on November 03, 2005

   Michael, as you well know clients couldn’t care less how you get their site done as long as it gets done on time and within budget. As for me handcoding gives me a degree of control over the code that no WYSIWYG editor can give. In fact I don’t see how you can do something like semantic markup without knowing the basics of (X)HTML.
   As far as Frontpage goes, that’s a piece of software that should be banned from any professional (or even semi-professional) webcoder’s computer… I’ve redesigned several Frontpage sites over the last few years and the code that that particular editor spews out is simply beyond belief.
   In case you’re wondering, I use BBEdit and sometimes the excellent Stylemaster for my handcoding :-)

2. James Higginbotham on November 03, 2005

   Agreed! I actually addressed this on my blog some time ago from the perspective of maintaining a site with volunteers after delivery (http://www.agileministry.com/?p=10).

   If someone is hand-coding the sites rather than utilizing applications like Dreamweaver, then you lose the ability to make it easier for people to edit and add new pages using templates. It also helps protect your average maintainer from messing up the overall layout code, and it can add more “billable hours” by training the customer on using the tools after delivery has been made. which is more valuable than hand-crafted code.

   In my view, this not only is a waste of billable hours as you said, but also doesn’t place the customer needs first. Instead, it demonstrates the company’s self-centeredness rather than solving your business problems.

3. Michael Boyink (Author) on November 03, 2005

   I wasn’t trying to position FP as a tool that I use - although I have in the past, and with some work it can write code that’s “OK”.  Not great, but a lot better than out of the box. 

   I think it gets a harder rap than it should.  I’ve always thought it’s navigation-building tools were pretty slick - but then again they’ve remained unimproved for a number of years now too.

   I’m still waiting for BBEdit for the PC…;)

   I rely pretty heavily on TopStyle Pro for getting the basic layouts and CSS work done.

4. Heiser Erwin on November 03, 2005

   @James :
   “If someone is hand-coding the sites rather than utilizing applications like Dreamweaver, then you lose the ability to make it easier for people to edit and add new pages using templates.”

   That is where we differ of opinion I’m afraid. To me the web is about language (XHTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP etc…) and concepts (semantic markup, separation of content and structure etc…) and not about the software you use. FYI, Dreamweaver is also a kick-ass handcoding environment. As for the “specialists” you hired, on their homepage (http://www.sovrenti.com/) there isn’t a shred of indexable content on that very page. If that’s the way the web is going I’ll pass…

5. Michael Boyink (Author) on November 03, 2005

   Now see…I sold my copy of DW off - just never used it…;)

   FWIW - both of you are right.  Language and concepts are important, but so is client maintainability.

   They are not mutually exclusive.

6. nate klaiber on November 16, 2005

   Very good post. I agree with the initial comment that we shouldnt SELL that we write clean code. Most clients dont care about that, they want to know what they can get and for how much.

   HOWEVER, it is our responsibility as web developers to do things the RIGHT way. Dreamweaver is a GREAT tool (I use zend studio at the moment). Frontpage - I agree with the previous comment that it is horrendous! I just reworked a site that was previously maintained with FP (thankfully I just use the DW function to clean up word html/repetitive tags). A functional and scalable site isnt one that has great templates - even those can get out of control and abused when put in the wrong hands. Its about a great separation of the pieces (MVC).

   Too many people think that with the tools out there now (wysiwyg/blogs/etc) that they are now web developers. Its so much deeper than that if you want to create a successful/meaningful/scalable/functional website. I still find it hard to trust just anyone to update a website. Unfortunately, thats been the trend lately - YOU TOO CAN BE A WEB DEVELOPER! There are so many holes in that if you ask me.

   I am glad for other Christian developers out there - especially those I have seen on this site.

   Keep up the great work guys!

   Peace,
   Nate

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