[WEB4LIB] RE: HTML Referring?

[Thomas Dowling]

At 08:12 AM 10/22/2002, Drew, Bill wrote:
>WYSIWIG does have its advantages.  I have been editing and creating HTML
>files since shortly after the first version of lynx was released for the VMS
>system.  I know my html inside and out.  I use Dreamweaver both in code view
>and WYSIWIG.  I use Dreamweaver because of its file management capabilities
>and because of the template functions.  I edit quite often in code view but
>also use WYSIWIG to move around on the page.


This conflates a couple of different issues.  Dreamweaver MX is a good 
editor that has a graphical editing mode.  It also has powerful tools for 
file and site management.  The two are not related, and there's no reason 
why text editors couldn't match all of those management features.

Dreamweaver MX has done an admirable job of putting a user-friendly 
graphical shell on a program that generates good code.  It is a rare 
exception: most graphical editors create horrendous code, and graphical 
editing itself encourages untrained, inexperienced authors to write poorly 
structured documents (IMO, of course) and think only about document 
appearance.  Witness the fact that so many people on this list think that 
graphical HTML editing is actually WYSISWYG.


Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu