Hand Code or Dreamweaver?

How do you code your websites?

  • Hand Code (Notepad++, etc.)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Dreamweaver (or other WYSIWG software)

    Votes: 12 100.0%
  • Total voters
    12
renniks said:
So whats the best route to get started as a developer?

(feels like I'm asking 21 questions now)

As in, would it better to just create a tonne of sites for a portfolio (I have 4 or 5 sites I want completed for different means) and then freelance myself out for designers to use as a developer.

Or would it be better to try and find a designer to work in cohorts with? Or do both basic design + impressive development all on my own?

Or find an agency? Or is it completely personal and I have to attempt to find my own way ? (if this is your answer, how did you manage it just for knowledge haha)

Didnt realise you weren't an old man harry :D
Click to expand...

Well what I did was taught myself as much as I could and I didn't enter the industry until I knew what I was doing. That is a major flaw with this industry—people think they know everything then pollute the marketplace with sub-par websites and shoddy work.

Once I felt confident enough in my work quality to charge for it, I started doing freelance gigs to build up my portfolio, and experimental projects for myself that invented scenarios the proper briefs didn't (this helped me expand skills further).

Then I was contacted by a company (they came after me, I was still at 6th form at the time) asking if I wanted a job. I accepted, then grew my skills even further, then applied for Yorkshire's big dogs who accepted me at the interview.

The point I'm making is take your time. Don't do things until you can prove yourself in the industry. If I'd gone in all guns blazing at 16 when I started out I'd have been laughed at. Wait 'til you're excellent at what you do and then the opportunities will come to you :)

chrismitchell said:
Harrys an old man like the rest of us.. all bitter and full of hatred for Comic Sans :lol:
Click to expand...

I have the mind of a 50 year old cab driver :(
 
of course no one will listen to you Harry.. you live in Leeds :lol: jk
 
Manually, usually with TextMate, but if it's something more elaborate I'll go for Espresso.
 
Yeah hand code all the way, I just find it:
1. Cuts bloat, well yeah if you know what your doing it cuts bloat,
2. Increases page performance,
3. Reduces server strain,
4. Makes maintenance easier, again if you know what your doing,
5. More and more clients are learning that web design is not just how a site looks and if they want their projects to actually work that it is the foundations that matter so therefore well coded sites are your way of saying this is the quality of my work.
6. Keeps costs long term down when they switch to a company that knows what they are doing,
7. Has small SEO benefits,
8. keeps your technical ability fresh, that way when a client says can you design me this you can say yes for £10 rather than going on-line finding 1 for £20 then charging them £30 to implement it you are basically cheaper plus if you have some of the clients I've had recently trying to get them to sign off on giving you more money that has just pushed their budget over is hard enough, I would hate to think what it would have been like having to get more money for extras, also having it implemented in an hour from them asking bigs you up in their eyes, give it a few hours/days of searching, reading documentation and then implementing it well....also if you cant find it then you have to tell them no in which case kiss your client good bye , who knows how to code properly.
9. Makes you more unique these days.
10. Saves you money as most WYSIWYG editors costs money, notepads free believe it or not.
11. Means the chances of you getting hacked drop like a stone, due to the fact that you are not using outdated unpacthed versions you don't appear in hackers SERPs who use the search engines with well detailed exploits looking for sites running out of date software.
12. Means you can technically implement anything you want or at least pay some1 to.
13. can make you 1 of those ppl who other ppl who arn't code savy go wow wish I could do that, how have they done that??? Again good for clients and future clients TBH

I had a client a couple of weeks back who I had to drop, he wanted massive SEO improvements, I could do that, the money was really right but his site used Yahoo! site builder, now any developer with experience of adding custom features to Yahoo! site builder knows 1 thing, it is not worth the effort, and in the end I had to drop him, which was a shame as the work would have been easy, but he wouldn't sign off on a total re-write which he couldn't see why it was needed.

Hand code is the only way for sites that truly want to do well across the board IMO.

Jaz
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top