[thelist] WYSIWYG Editors (Previously WebReview responds to WaSP browser death march)

[Andrew Forsberg]

>  > WYSIWY(Almost Never)G tools are almost a crutch for learning how to
>>  do your job properly
>
>Really? What is my job, as you see it? I thought it was to turn out
>user-friendly web sites that by hook or by crook also meet my clients' oft
>misguided criteria. Despite their criteria, frequently.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be quite so vehement. I meant that working in 
the web design / development industry means knowing more than joe 
blow about how that industry works. To take a print analogy: you may 
not be able to code in raw postscript (does anyone anymore?), but you 
should be confident that you know how postscript works, why, its 
advantages and disadvantages. WYSIWYG web tools help people quickly 
come to terms with a lot of similar web issues, but right now it is 
not a replacement for making intelligent human decisions about the 
code you're working on. Another (arguably absurd) print example: 
would you trust a piece of layout software that allowed you to output 
an RGB image to film? If you *know* how colour works on screen and in 
print then it's not likely to be a problem, you won't let that happen 
-- but the layout program can only hold your hand so far. Same with 
WYSIWYG tools.
-- 
Andrew Forsberg
http://www.thepander.co.nz