Assuming that I am starting from a basic knowledge of html and hence need a simple WYSIWYG editor, which free editor should I learn to get some idea of responsive html5 ready websites? Will it be Blue Griffon? Or some other?
You absolutely do not need a WYSIWYG editor. Period. It will only generate crap for code. What you need is a plain text editor; that's it. Write your content, mark it up and add bells and whistles with css and javascript. All done with a text editor. If you turn out crap, that's on you, but at least you can learn to do better; that WYSIWYG idiot will stay a coding idiot. There are a potload of free text editors available. Pick one and learn its capabilities. Better yet, determine what capabilities you want and need from your editor and choose one that meets your requirements. Some things to consider: Can you do what you're doing without touching the mouse? If you're a touch typist, reaching for the mouse, moving the cursor and perhaps clicking down through several menu layers will drag your speed down and break whatever mental flow you have going; yet another reason to not use a WYSIWYG piece of crap. Does the editor format your code the way you want it? In every language you use, e.g. html, css javascript, php, Perl, python, java, scheme, lisp, sql, etc.? Good formatting will make it easier, quicker and therefore cheaper to debug and maintain. If you work in a multiple coder environment, does the editor interface natively with your cvs, e.g. git, svn, Hg? Consider that if not now, maybe later? Having to leave the editor for common housekeeping chores costs time. Speaking of chores, can you edit directories, run shell commands, up/down load files via ftp or use ssh, scp, etc. from the editor? Does the editor have large repositories of extensions/plugins readily available to install/remove/update? Extensions that you may edit yourself if you want? These are some of the things to consider if you want to become a decent coder. You may not need all of them right now, but consider that you may at some time, so you want the capabilities. cheers, gary
PineGrow is pretty good and will take you on a steep learning curve to get it right - but atleast it won't generate bloated code
I would also not recommend a WYSIWYG Editor. Start with learning the basics of HTML5 and write simple Websites in Notepad++. If you want to make more professional Websites you can look at sikes like selfhtml or w3schools.
When I was a beginner, I used liveweave.com - give it a try. But Notepad++ is enough for writing simple sites.
I think "Dreamweaver CS5" is the best html editor for newbie. It has lots of cool feature so that you can easily show your coding skills.
it certainly does show off your coding skills. it gives any potential client that looks at your work a heads up that you are unskilled.
Bwhahaha... skills. RIGHT. Tell me another one Josephine. Seriously, listen to Gary, if you "need" a WYSIWYG, or are even using anything that automates it for you, all you are doing is sleazing out a bloated broken inaccessible train wreck. As a dearly departed friend of mine used to say: "The only thing about Dreamweaver that can be considered professional grade tools are the people promoting its use!" Which is why I say the only thing you can learn from tools like Dreamweaver is how NOT to build a website. Much like the mouth-breathing halfwit idiocy of dicking around in photoshop and calling it "design", I've never seen a result built with it that wasn't an utter and complete disaster from an accessibility, functionality, usability or speed point of view; no matter how "pretty" it might be on the perfect combination of screen size and resolution you happened to have been sitting in front of whilst building it.
Every day I need to see at least one stupid comment know I have not die and gone to Heaven. There very few things worse then using Dreamweaver; at any skill level. It is well named because all it produces are dreams of glory that never get delivered, and the WYS part in no way reflects how it will render in browsers. All anyone will learn from it is a collection of 4-letter words to describe how they feel when the see a browser puke out what DW feeds them.
Can all of us who KNOW how to program, and make a website, just agree that all you need is a text-editor - plain and simple. WHICH text-editor, and what kind of bells and whistles it might have, THAT is a completely different debate, but a plain text-editor is what you need to code (mostly anything). People promoting Dreamweaver, or other WYSI(n)WYG editors, do not know what they're talking about, and shouldn't really be making websites - at all. It's really that simple.
I may end up hitting unlike a few times just to hit like again. This is particularly true since it most always means they don't know the first damned thing about HTML, CSS or accessibility, which is why the sites built by the fools who advocate Dreamweaver -- even when creating works of art -- are accessibility disasters that only ignorant fools could see the slightest merit in. Though most of the times the "rawr, use Dreamweaver" one sentence wonder-posters out themselves by not saying why, having low post counts and rarely venturing outside the scam artist business sell/trade sections except to create such pointless "me too" posts.
I have always enjoyed Notepad++. I will admit, for simple <html></html> pages, I code directly into Cpanel's File Manager.
I hope you understand how dangerous that is. It does not matter how simple the page is. A simple typo can blow you up big time, damage the database and hurt your reputation. You save what; 15 seconds? It also means you are testing directly on the server without making sure it works in development. It is like playing Russian Roulette; the longer you play the higher the probability of ... OOOOOOOOOPS! Of course we can BUT (there is always a but) we do have those who call yhemselves developers without being able to actually write their own code who are always going to try and promote how they "build" websites with the "easy to use" and "COOOOOOOOL" tools to produce sites that make 20th century geocities look good by comparison.
How is that possible? I create an index file, a css file and an images directory. I am not even connected to the database. Any typo (which I make) is corrected and re-saved.
There is an unwritten rule of development called GOTCHA! "If you don't follow best practices, sooner or later a mistake will jump up and bite you; generally at the least convenient time." You can get away with something a thousand times but when you are changing anything directly on the server without testing before deployment you risk an unexpected interaction with what is already deployed, and it does not matter how isolated you think everything is, the reality is anything can interact with anything else to fire functions you did not know even existed. I don't know what software or architecture you have on the server, but I know what dragons are in the basement waiting to be released if you make a mistake. When you are deploying in Cpanel you have SU privilege within your server space; which means you are basically working with most security provisions disabled.