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Richard Wentford
19,730 Pointswysiwyg editors vs hand coding
I want to get some peoples' opinions and what they believe to be the pros and cons of each. I completely agree that a professional must be proficient with HTML, CSS and JS and be able to code from scratch.
I understand many employers prefer employees to hand code but if a freelancer used a wysiwyg editor and created web sites faster while still keeping an eye on code bloat would this be a problem?
4 Answers
James Gill
Courses Plus Student 34,936 PointsRichard,
Start with "hand" coding, especially if you're looking to grow and become a professional developer. "wysiwyg" tools add power, but they're not necessarily better--if you're still learning a lot of basics, they can actually slow you way down and confuse you. Later, you can naturally try a wysiwyg tool/framework/etc.
Michael Collins
433 PointsTools are for speed but no replacement for knowledge and experience.
I've seen many a coder climb out onto a limb they couldn't climb back down from. They thought their tool was going to allow them to accomplish something they didn't really have a grasp on. And it worked! ... until the client started making some minor revisions, and then they couldn't make it work any more. And by that time, the client had expectations and truly believed the project was nearly done.
I'm happy to use tools because they make certain processes go faster. But, I won't use tools to do something that I don't know how to do by hand. It's a risky move, and guaranteed, someday, your gonna get caught short.
Richard Wentford
19,730 PointsI can completely agree with you about not using a program as a crutch. I have heard stories of designers getting away with it for years but with more knowledgeable clients it's not a position I'd want to be in.
Peter Ramsing
16,814 PointsCoding by hand is great and it's a powerful think to know. Depending on the clients needs I have used frameworks to help clients adapt the site as they progress in their business. A project I was recently involved in took an extra 3 weeks of development because the person coding it (I was doing branding and copy) built it by scratch and had to go back and redo most of his code by hand when we added some more pages and changed up some designs after his first deliverable. It cost a lot of money and time.
So, if your client is going to keep changing things up on you in the future I try to outweigh that against the "bloat factor". It's certainly case by case–but one final thought. Using your own code makes it increasingly difficult to pass projects off to other developers...
Hope that helps.
Richard Wentford
19,730 PointsThank you for the reply. Great to get a first hand perspective.