[thelist] "Hand Coding" in DWMX2004

[Ken Chase]

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 10:12:06 -0700, "Aaron Cole" <aaron at aaroncole.com>
said:
> Why do so many people bash Dreamweaver MX and say that they prefer to 
> "hand code"?
> 
> I see it all of the time and it really confuses me.  Do these people 
> not understand that you don't have to use the WYSIWYG features?  I'm 
> not going to say that it's the end all to be all, but it's a pretty 
> damned good editor and while it may be cool to say that you use 
> Notepad, I'd call that an inefficient use of your time.  I'd also call 
> that a run-on sentence, but I'm at work and probably should be doing 
> something else right now.
> 
> The optional auto-fill feature alone saves me tons of time.  The 
> search/replace functionality rocks and the "site" management means I 
> don't have a stand-alone FTP client anymore.
> 
> In anticipation of being bashed as ignorant, I will say that I've been 
> employed in the Bay Area as an "HTML/CSS guy" for the past five years 
> (not including those crappy five months in 2001, but let's not talk 
> about that).  I can "hand code" in Notepad with the best of them.  I've 
> been known to have dreams about markup.  I know what I'm doing.
> 
> So what am I missing here?

I guess that "their" comments are assuming that the WYSIWYG part of
Dreamweaver is being used. You're correct with your comments with
regards to Notepad. Anybody who does anything but minor edits using this
tool has too much time on their hands. The whole Notepad thing has been
going on for years with programmers/web designers. It's just a way to
brag and boast. Pay it no mind.

However, hand-coding is the only way to fully control your mark-up so
that it is:

  1 - Accessible
  2 - Validates to standards

Use whatever tool best helps you achieve your objectives.

ras kenbo