[thelist] Hand Coding vs. WYSIWYGs [was 12yr old]

Tom Dell'Aringa pixelmech at yahoo.com
Fri Jan 30 08:42:36 CST 2004


--- Iva Koberg <iva at livestoryboard.com> wrote:
> For one, someone who knows what they are doing in web development
> can build the exact same site at higher quality faster for a lower
> price by hand or not (the price part is up to them of course :). 
> That same person can probably build the same site even better if 
> they have more powerful tools that meet their criteria for quality 
> and so on. If you want to put
> this in perspective, here is a down to earth example:
> 
> Requirements (over simplified):  
> - 50 page static site
> - content + info architecture provided
> - psd's provided (somewhat complex layout)
> - 3 different page layouts depending on page type
> - averagely complex navigation (bread crumbs, tabs, left nav,
> selected
> states and all, no js needed)
> - must be clean, valid code
> - must be 508 compliant
> - must use css for layout 
> - must use semantic markup
> 
> So if you are available and willing to take on the project:
> Do you hand code? How long does it take you?
> What is the ballpark cost to the client? [not sure if this question
> is appropriate for the list, so ignore if not.

I'll tell you what - this is close to what I am working on now. But
its going to be more than 50 pages and I have been involved in more
work than you specified above. There are more than 3 templates too.

I'm hand coding the entire project. There was NO THOUGHT in my mind
of doing anything else. If I build a 5 page site I hand code it. If I
build a 5,000 page site, I hand code it.

And nobody sane builds 50 or 500 pages one by one - even if it is a
'static' site. You build templates and components.

I think that part of the discussion here is not only coding but
deeper issues like how a site is architected and then built. Some of
these things only come by experience.

And if you tried to shove a WYSIWYG in my face to do this project,
I'd ADD money to the project, not subtract it. :) No, I'm not
kidding.

Tom

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