WYSIWYG Web Authoring Tools, Do we need them?

[codeexploiter]

Hi all,

I was thinking about the relevance of the WYSIWYG web authoring tools like Macromedia DreamWeaver or Adobe GoLive. The problem I want to point out is the layout developed based on WYSIWYG need not work perfectly all the time using any of this kind of editor in all browsers. While you develop the page in the preview of the web authoring tool you'll get the output as you wanted but once you load the page in browsers like IE, FF, NN, Opera, etc the layout and design need not be the one you wanted.

The vendors are claiming that people can deliver websites without knowing anything about HTML or any other technology but i found that difficult to believe.

I prefer to hand code using a text editor like em editor or editpad lite. I would like to know your valuable opinion about this topic.

Regards

Code Exploiter

[djr33]

I really like using dreamweaver.
It's code-coloring function is great... it makes typing php out a lot faster.
Though, that's not exactly on topic.

Note that I said "using" dreamweaver, not "relying upon".
People only using a WYSIWYG editor with no knowledge of html are screwed when it, as it always does, does something wrong.

But, there are a nice tool to get a live preview of what you're doing (just generally so you can visualize it), and to make doing things a lot faster. They're NOT a good thing to use to test javascript, php, css, or anything else like that. But they're fine for basic html, and they do make your life easier.

[codeexploiter]

If you are looking for a PHP IDE you can try any one of the following:

http://www.phpeclipse.de/tiki-view_articles.php - Eclipse for PHP

http://www.zend.com/ - Zend PHP IDE

I don't think DreamWeaver has the features supported by the above two IDEs.

[jscheuer1]

WYSIWYG editors are fine for folks who don't know anything about code. If you don't go overboard, they produce code that will play well in most modern browsers. It may be a bit bloated, have backward and froward compatibility issues and even be invalid according to current standards but, for the most part it will work.

If you decide to 'get under the hood' and code using a text editor of some sort, you better get to know HTML, css and whatever other languages you are using or else you are liable to come up with a result that is inferior to what a WYSIWYG editor will produce.

[tech_support]

NotePad ;)

[the-disturbed]

im with him ^^^ notepad is great, if ya wanna whip sumthin up quick but most of the stuff on my webpage is frm dreamweaver, just for the color coding WYSIWYG is for lazy people lol

[tech_support]

just for the color coding WYSIWYG is for lazy people

Well, colour coding can help sometimes if you have a very long code and you like to see it visually, so you don't get confused.

[djr33]

What's wrong with being lazy?
It could also be called efficient, saving time so we have more time to learn more, and do more.
Is that lazy? ;)

[tech_support]

Imagine if everyone in this world was lazy.

[djr33]

Things would get done twice as fast.

[tech_support]

Really? Thought that nothing would get invented cause they're too lazy.

[djr33]

I said above that lazy=efficient, in this sense.
Of course it also means things might be overlooked, but assuming someone is good enough at being lazy, they just get more time for other things.

[jscheuer1]

Lazy and efficient are two different things. Someone who is truly lazy avoids all effort. An efficient person avoids unnecessary effort.

If you like coding in Notepad, try out a syntax highlighting editor with a decent clip collection utility, preview in the browser of your choice button and regular expression support. Now that's lazy, er - I mean efficient.

[tech_support]

I said above that lazy=efficient, in this sense.
Of course it also means things might be overlooked, but assuming someone is good enough at being lazy, they just get more time for other things.
Oh. Meh.

[djr33]

see? :p

[711]

I agree wholeheartedly with post number 2. Dreamweaver is fantastic for it's coding view. Color coding, and lots of buttons to save you the monotony of hand coding basic things.

[codeexploiter]

It is a true fact that we can minimize the development time if we go for WYSIWYG editor like Macromedia DreamWeaver as we don't have to write all the tags from the scratch.

But the main issue is can we rely their WYSIWYG preview fully? I don't think we can rely fully upon their preview feature.

From a beginner's point of view WYSIWYG editors is very good but from an experienced web developer they can't fully rely upon them.

[djr33]

Sure. But they still help.
And if someone is new, they likely would create worse code by hand... at least they can dos something, while they learn. assuming they're learning html at the same time.