Quite a few of my loyal readers are quite nice and praise me for my various design related endeavors. However, my favourite part of designing something, like, say, this website, is the coding. Designing is always so picky. Things need to be laid out in a certain way, and they need to be pretty, but there aren’t a tonne of concrete rules to follow in regards to that. Coding, however, is like putting together a puzzle. There’s a right and wrong answer. I love that.
Actually, it’s quite contradictory to most other aspects in my life. I.E. I dislike science and abhor math and adore abstract studies such as English and history, as I’m sure you will figure out in the following paragraphs:
Valid HTML is like… the very attractive body of someone very attractive. And well done CSS is like… their very nice designer clothing. Together, they make this being that is like… unbelievably hot. You would not kick this being out of bed. But the thing is, valid HTML can still be VERY HORRIBLY WRONG. You can have valid HTML and good CSS and still be a mass murderer. You would kick a mass murderer out of bed. Which is why we have clean, semantic mark-up. It is like… the soul and personality of the incredibly attractive being.
Sure, spans may be placed all over, and they may have identical inline styles in each of them repeating all over the page like an infectious disease, and still be valid. But they’re not nice. They’re coming into my bedroom and murdering me in cold blood. And they’re murdering you too, you just don’t know it yet.
You might be new to the whole web development thing. You might think you’re saving time by not having to format things that are already formatted in Microsoft Word. Or that by clicking a button all your web dev problems are solved! Someone incredibly lovely, who you trust because she gives extensions, might be telling you that it is okay to do things this way. It’s not. It’s painful to society. Just so you know.
TL;DR: They’re making us use Dreamweaver in school, and not just as a suitable replacement for Notepad++.
I feel your pain! We had to use Dreamweaver last year in BTT and it was just asdfghjkl hell. The “code” just makes me want to die.
I love this comparison so much, and I will use it to explain what I do for the rest of my life.
Also, Dreamweaver stinks. Some people say it doesn’t matter how you do the work, as long as you get paid, but coding in Dreamweaver is so UGH. I don’t even know how much someone would have to pay me to use Dreamweaver.
You know, I’ve always hard-coded everything my entire time of web designing. I’ve never used a template or a premade layout, which is why I didn’t initially get the hate for Dreamweaver, as I used it for coding (by myself!) for two years.
But, from the clues around, I figured out the internal coding (i.e. the templates) are horribly invalid, just like most “HTML editors”. I’m sorry you have to deal with it, but that’s most schools for you – they don’t teach you semantics, unfortunately, only how to slap on a page for graphic design. Horrible. *squishes you*
Reply: Oh, no, don’t get me wrong. I have an AMAZING web development teacher, who does everything properly. We learn Dreamweaver in web DESIGN class, however, and it’s apparently to prepare us for Adobe certification tests.
As someone who loves math and properly structured stuff, Dreamweaver is unbearable. I start twitching like crazy just thinking about it.
I agree that it’s nice to code stuff yourself, so you can do it cleanly and properly. When I was 12 or so I created my first blog in Microsoft Frontpage. It’s scary to think that this is where I learnt HTML! I’ve since learnt how much terrible-ness can come out of WYSIWYG editors. Doing it manually is more satisfying, anyway.
I love this so much! Sooo much! <3 I know how you feel – there is just no replacement beautifully done coding that you've coded correctly yourself.
Welcome to the Dreamweaver Haters Associated!
Er, yeah… We also had to use it in our Business Web Design class, but our tutor sucked and she forbid us from using CSS, thus spans were flying all over along with funk tables, .gif effects and whatnot. I just wonder which business would buy our final project…
Whenever I work with Dreamweaver, I just put it in “code modus” so you can only see the html. I don’t use it to write css though. You should try CSS Edit for that. That’s quite some cool software. The makers of CSS Edit also have a nice application to write html. Most of the time I work with those two. Much more convenient than Dreamweaver.
I had to use Dreamweaver in school too. I hated it.
ugh. dreamweaver!
We have to use it currently and i hate it >.< My teacher won’t let me use the coding view either. I think he thinks we are all retarded and have never seen coding before. Ugh!
Am I the only person who likes Dreamweaver?
Things I like about it: the dual screen, organised file/site management, being able to synch to a server, the extensive “Find and Replace” tool, the cross-browser compatibility tests, the link checker and being able to create grid systems in design view (which I believe is a unique feature).
I code fairly well by default. I do not allow Dreamweaver to “auto-code” — the only thing I do allow is automatic tag closing whilst I type.
A tool is just that. A tool. Whether it works or not depends entirely on whoever uses it.
This analogy… is AWESOME. Never saw it that way. Once upon a time I actually learned HTML through Dreamweaver though… which may very well be the reason why I had so much trouble learning to code properly. Or more like, exactly the reason.