FrontPage, bad code and Word documents

[Walter Giesbrecht]

Jeff.Kuntzman at UCHSC.edu wrote:
> 
> I usually don't get involved with defending Microsoft products, however I
> disagree with the oft-made assertion that FrontPage generates lousy code. I
> am using FP 2002 (XP) and although the code it automatically generates is
> not perfect, it's way better than it used to be. Also, if you start with
> good code, you can set FrontPage not to mess with it.

I used to keep a copy of Frontpage 98 (!) installed on my system,
purely to convery Word documents into HTML. It did a better job than
Word itself (with or without the Compact HTML add-on) and *much*
better than FP2K. Never having used FP2002, I can't comment on the
quality of its code.

The main thing that used to infuriate me about FP ("used to", because
I don't use it anymore) was its occasional inability to accept
perfectly valid HTML when input via the 'HTML view'. I could add code
this way (mostly because it was easier to get the cursor in the right
place than in the 'normal' view), switch to Normal, not see any
difference, go back to HTML and find that my code had been removed.
Not so much as a "by your leave" -- just gone. Any program that can't
accept perfectly valid HTML when input directly, as opposed to in
WYSIWYG mode, is a problem.

-- 

Walter Giesbrecht                               walterg at yorku.ca
Data Librarian                         (416) 736-2100 ext. 77551
York University, Toronto, CANADA                         113 SSB
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