[thelist] ALA article

Bob Davis bobd at members.evolt.org
Wed Mar 7 09:48:24 CST 2001


There's a very interesting article on ALA today that relates very well to
some of the discussion we've been having here.

http://www.alistapart.com/stories/basics/

If you've read aardvark's article on evolt.org, I think you'll find that
it's a good alternative perspective on the same problem

http://www.evolt.org/article/To_Hell_With_Bad_Editors/25/6096/index.html

In short - wysiwyg editors try their hardest to give you what you have asked
for visually.  They don't give a tinkers damn about structure or (sometimes)
standards compliance.  You, as the writer, have to know HTML, have to know
structure, have to know what works and what doesn't.

Ben is making a similar argument to the one that is made about wysiwyg word
processors - that it accelerates the 'dumbing down' of users.  Software like
Dreamweaver (which I use at various parts of page design) while very
competent can never be as smart as you can be.  Don't shackle yourself to
the limitations of the software - use it as a tool and overcome it's limits
with your wisdom and mastery of the medium.

Cool article.

There's some interesting discussion in the forums about it too.

-- 

bob davis
bobd at members.evolt.org





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