[thelist] Dreamweaver Codewriting

[Tom Dell'Aringa]

David I agree with your points, but let me make a similar point from a different point of view (I
just used the word "point" three times...)

For those of you MMers out there who might be offended by what David just said - it is the best
thing for you and your career. When I first started developing I began learning on Adobe's WYSIWYG
(name escapes me right now) and doing some code by hand. I moved to CyberSomethings GoLive before
Adobe bought them after that.

I used to have long, drawn out discussions with hand-coders about how fast I could develop in a
WYSIWYG environment and do the same things they do with good code. But you know, I was wrong.

You simply cannot get to know HTML, JavaScript and so on the way you NEED to know it by using a
WYSIWYG ONLY - or even PRIMARILY. What I found when I started hand-coding a few years ago is that
all of a sudden you are forced to really understand tags, structure and good programming practices
that you won't be exposed to otherwise.

ESPECIALLY with JavaScript. You learn virtually NOTHING using MM to write a script. But you try
and write it yourself - you learn everything. You learn how to write it better, cleaner and it
teaches you how to write OTHER scripts.

Most importantly, you've suddenly become 100% more employable, and you've suddenly become worth
50% more pay than you were before. Those are 2 huge benefits themselves. I have been hired for
jobs - 2 particularly important jobs in my career - that I would have NEVER EVER gotten had I not
been strictly a hand coder. You say WYSIWYG and you are out the door for - frankly - the good jobs
(flame me if you will.)

Lastly, once you've become fluent at hand coding, if you NEED to (for some strange reason) you can
go back and use MM or whatever if a client asks - its just another bullet in your belt.

But believe it or not, hand coding is faster. I hate to make this comparison, but it works. You
know in the Matrix where Neo comes up and looks at whatshisname watching the code flying down the
screens, and he askes how he can see anything that way, and whatshisname replies that its the best
way to see it and he only sees car here, lady there etc. Its the same thing.

cheerios

/tom

--- David Kutcher <david_kutcher at hotmail.com> wrote:
> small Dreamweaver discrimination:
>
> I've had a client that, when he finally looked at the code a previous
> developer had delivered to him, asked me "why do all of the javascripts in
> my code have MM_ in them?"  I replied: "those are Dreamweaver functions".
> "Dreamweaver?  The WYSIWYG editor?!?!"  He wasn't happy.
>
> Also, when I am looking to hire developers/programmers, I look at their
> code.  I want a developer that is able to write javascript from scratch.  I
> freely admit that I would not hire someone that used Dreamweaver's (or any
> other WYSIWYG's) code for a project instead of writing their own.
>
> I also cannot stand it when people's resumes say they know javascript and I
> see MM_ in their examples.  Kills me every time.
>
> I don't care if it's compact, versatile, etc.... learn to write it yourself
> if this is your profession.
>
> Maybe this is me being cranky because it's so damn hot today in the city.
> Oh well.
>
> David
> www.confluentforms.com
>
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