[thelist] can someone build a 100-page website with only HTML/CSS skill?

[Will]

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:12 AM, Jeremy Weiss <eccentric.one at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 10:36 AM, Zhang Weiwu <zhangweiwu at realss.com>
> wrote:
>
> I could be wrong, but seems to me like everyone is making this more
> difficult than it has to be.
>
> I work with a couple designers who knew no PHP. They were taught to build
> their navigation in a seperate file and then place a php include on the
> page
> calling that file. When they need to update the navigation, they just
> modify
> one file. After a couple months, they learned that if they want different
> items on different pages they build a second file (nav2.php) which consists
> of nothing but html and they include that file on the pages where they want
> it. We started them slow and now they're including headers, footers,
> navigation, sidebars, and whatever else they want on multiple pages. And
> the
> only PHP they had to learn is <?php include("navbar.php") ?>
>
> Just becuase we're including a file for navigation, doesn't mean we have to
> have a script to build it automatically. That seems like over kill in this
> situation.
>

This is exactly what I was thinking reading this super long thread. This is
getting really complicated. Go with php because if she starts to experiment,
the skills are a little more useful in client land.  Short of the include
statement, there really is no php involved.  But, if you decide to go
dynamic later, you can add scripting without massive grepping.

The only drawback from your original rules is that using php will require
her to set up a local dev environment and work from there. No big deal in
the days of WAMP/MAMP stacks where you get the whole shebang at the click of
an icon.

http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2005/06/08/simple_templ/ is the first
templating system I used and I was terrified of PHP. It's a total breeze and
can be extended simply to include other header items like meta data or
additional page specific css.


Will