Hi Guys, This is for you guys that are pros who build professional sites every day. I've been building sites for several years and am embarrassed to admit that I use Front Page. After building a template I go through the code line by line and fix everything that Front Page has messed up. I despise the program, always have. I've come to the conclusion that it's time to grow up and move on. So if I want to really get serious and learn to build proffesional level sites rather than simple ugly adsense/affiliate garbage, which direction should I head? I built a site today with notepad in html, something I haven't done in a long time. Next I'm going to learn css and php. Where should I go from there? I was going to learn xhtml but then I heard it doesn't work with IE? Do you pros hand code every single line or do you use some sort of editor? What do you think about Expression Web? Or would it be a crutch? I'd like to fix my bad habits and build sites correctly and efficiently. If I was to apply for a job at a web development company, what method would they expect me to use? Thank you for any and all advice you're willing to give. Even if it's just to call me a stupid newb Boog
Stupid noob, can you design me some sites? I don't know what to tell you to learn but you are right that Front Page is a pos.
XHTML is not that different from HTML as far as browsers are concerned - IE is compatible with a page written with XHTML. There is a whole other problem with using different MIME types though but you dont need to worry about that. I am not a "pro" but I just use a text editor.
I've been working with Dreamweaver (best imo) and other wysiwyg editors for long and it really saves me a lot of troubles. It's just a waste of time writing code in Notepad or similar. You can always switch to the "code" tab and fix whatever you want.
Some observations: It is just as fast to use a good text editor, faster for me, than it is to use something like Dreamweaver. There is no sane reason to use Frontpage. It's a PoS. Emacs is the text editor of choice for high productivity. It allows you to do everything from within the editor except test in actual browsers. No wysiwyg editor can produce good css. Wysiwyg editors cannot produce templates for dynamic sites. Templating engines require instruction, and that's beyond the scope of DW and its ilk. The text editor is the only tool required for writing scripts, whether server side or client. You can test your PHP, PERL, Python, etc. functions from within Emacs. So, use a powerful text editor such as Emacs (or Vim) for all your coding. Learn x/html and css. It's not rocket science, but it's beyond the abilities of DW, etc.. Learn javascript for client side scripting. Learn PHP and SQL for server side scripting. Learn to use the Smarty templating engine for PHP based pages. It's a good idea to install and use a CVS (concurrent versioning system). It will allow you to roll back to any stage of production. For example, reproduce the documents as they were the last time they worked right, say last Friday at 3:30PM. Of all these things a web developer does, the wysiwyg part is the least important, and DW, FP, et al don't do a very good job at that. The text editor is the center of all productivity. There are those who will tell you DW or whatever is the way to go, but that's like arguing that their bicycles with training wheels are the best because that's all they know how to ride, and they do it so well. Meanwhile, the real riders are cruising down the highway on their fully loaded honkin' Harleys. cheers, gary
Thank you very much for everyone's input! I really appreciate it. And a HUGE thank you to Gary. Your post answered every single question I had. I really appreciate your taking the time to post that incredibly thorough reply. I'm going to follow your recommendations to the letter. I'm off to download Emacs and find a CVS Boog