Re: best software for web site development

[Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com]

> My boss wants to create a web site up and has asked me which software
would
> work best. I don't know anything about this end of the technology. I
suppose
> FrontPage or HTML are the top two choices, correct? I would certainly
welcome
> feedback from those of you "in the know". Thx, Chris

I use BBEdit, mainly. WYSIWYG (What You So Intensely Wish You'll Get)
editors generally cause more trouble than they are worth. It doesn't take
long to learn basic HTML (HTML isn't an application, it's a language) and
editors like BBEdit have macros that build/edit the tags directly, so you
don't need to memorize systax as much as learn which tag is useful for
which effect.

If you have to use a WYSIWYG tool, Dreamweaver and FrontPage are the two
commerical frontrunners, though few professionals use Front Page because of
other problems it used to cause. I've been assured that MS has reformed and
the current version of FP plays nice, but once burned, twice shy as the
saying goes; I'll never pick it up again. Adobe GoLive has its followers as
well.

Your first priority should be to get used to the idea that you're not going
to have any real control over the appearance of your pages. Web design is
an exercise in hopeful optimism; you put some pages togather and hope not
many people in your targeted audience have the specific browsers which will
break your design, and only have the browsers which bend it badly. (Those
doubting that might have some fun at Eric Meyer's site where he has some
CSS1 layout code (a standard several years old) which only three known
browsers render properly (MSIE/mac 5, and Netscape 6.2 and Mozilla for both
platforms -- no version of MSIE/Windows, including 6, nor Opera nor anyone
else gets it right.)

If you're going to do this, the first thing you need to do is collect a
stable of browser/OS combinations for your testbed, so that you can see
your designs in action. Otherwise you're going to get folks complaining, or
more likely, just clicking away, never to be heard from again.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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