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The merits of learning to hand code?

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Oct 23.2005

Hi All,

As I have explained in my previous, initial thread, I am a complete novice at HTML and/or any other web practices other than “general population” browsing of the big WWW.

I have a general question in regards the footing of understanding one must hold in HTML to get on with things.

I have read in a thread posted by someone regards downloading HTML-Kit, a nice looking programme which seems to take the “pain” out off putting down HTML on your good old trusted Notepad by keystroke input as the good old pioneers had to do.

Is it better to employ such programmes when just starting out, or learn HTML “by hand” before doing so? Would a novice lose the experience necessary to grasp the fundimentals of HTML by missing out on the trial and tribulations of his/her predecessors, or is that utter tosh and one should use any and all tools to hand?

Curious………..

Alex

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15 Comments(s) ↴

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@JPnycOct 23.2005 — I changed the thread title to something relevant, so you'll get more replies.
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@felgallOct 23.2005 — Use the tools that you have available. Seeing what code that an editor creates for you to produce a given effect means that you have learned how to produce that effect by hand in the future.
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@kelly23Oct 23.2005 — I would have to respectfully disagree with felgall. In my opinion, there is no substitute for knowing how to code by hand. I can't tell you how often the ability to troubleshoot code and to code from scratch comes in handy, especially as you start working with more advanced layouts and other types of scripting, or want to customize a server side script where there is no wysiwig to work with.

Seeing the code side by side with its output is helpful, but is not the same as being able to code everything yourself from concept to completion.

Of course, just my 2 cents. :rolleyes:
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@CharlesOct 23.2005 — On the one hand there is HTML; on the other, "tag soup". HTML is a standard grammer and syntax whereby one describes the [i]meanig[/i] of each part of a page - be a part a heading, a paragraph, emphasised or such. "Tag soup" uses the parts of HTML to make certain kinds of browsers jump through certain hoops. HTML works on [i]all[/i] browsers including audio and Briaille browsers. "Tag soup" only works on those certian browswers. To create HTML you must know what you are doing and you must do it by hand. All HTML generators, [url=http://www.w3.org/Amaya/]save one[/url], produce "tag soup".
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@the_treeOct 24.2005 — I'd say learning with HTML-Kit or Notepad+ isn't too far from learning to code by hand anyway. Syntax highlighting isn't that different to highlighting useful phrases in study notes.

Using a WYSIWYG however produces the tag soup that Charles is talking about which is certainly avoidable, this is not recomended.
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@drhowarddrfineOct 24.2005 — Hand coding is to wysiwyg as working out math on paper is to using a calculator. If you really want to understand how it works and how to fix problems then hand code.
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@CharlesOct 24.2005 — Hand coding is to wysiwyg as working out math on paper is to using a calculator.[/QUOTE]That would only be true if the calculator always gave the wrong answer. But only subtly wrong so that you never quite notice its wrong but other people do. Like when your fly is down.
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@felgallOct 24.2005 — I would have to respectfully disagree with felgall. In my opinion, there is no substitute for knowing how to code by hand.[/QUOTE]

You are not disagreeing with me. You misunderstood what I said.

There is no substitute for knowing how to coding by hand. One way to learn how to code by hand is to get a WYSIWYG editor that produces reasonable output and look at the code that it generates to produce a given effect. As the person becomes more experienced at writing HTML by hand they will learn how to improve on that code.
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@CharlesOct 24.2005 — ...get a WYSIWYG editor that produces reasonable output...[/QUOTE]There is no such thing, nor can there be.
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@the_treeOct 25.2005 — Charles: what about Amya? It's markup is [i]reasonable[/i].
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@CharlesOct 25.2005 — Amaya's mark up is more than reasonable, but that's because it's not entirely a WYSIWYG, or rather it's an entirely different kind of WYSIWYG. Every other WYSIWYG is also a WYTIWYWTS, what you type is what you want to see. And that's really the point of a WYSIWYG. It allows one to author a page visually and that's bad.
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@Robert_WellockOct 25.2005 — I heard FrontPage was well CooL!

The thing is you need to at least know the basics if you decide to use a IDE or if you do something ill-advised like create a page in Dreamweaver or FrontPage, etc. via WYSINYWG you are likely to come unstuck.
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@mike_leksOct 25.2005 — I suggest diving right into it, and if you use a wysiwyg editor then make sure you look over the source to understand how you made it work. A couple of pages later you'll be a pro. HTML itself is very simple to grasp.
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@KravvitzOct 25.2005 — [url=http://www.nvu.com/]What about NVU?[/url]

I made my first few web pages with a WYSIWYG editor. I've coded by hand ever since. Microsoft's Notepad does not have very many features. There are many other text editors that are designed to be used by programmers, many of which are free.
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@drhowarddrfineOct 26.2005 — I had tried nvu some time ago and don't remember why I didn't like it. Tried it again a couple of days ago and it looked nicer than I remember but it had changed code on me somehow. All around seemed a little clunky but I'm just used to what I have now which is very good.
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