Comments on: What to look for in a professional web designer http://www.sillybean.net/2005/02/what-to-look-for-in-a-professional-web-developer/ reading, writing, web design, and the intersections thereof Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:10:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: fab http://www.sillybean.net/2005/02/what-to-look-for-in-a-professional-web-developer/comment-page-1/#comment-8587 fab Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:29:03 +0000 http://www.sillybean.net/archives/647/#comment-8587 hmm, i dont agree on 2 points : - Handcoding prove that he perfectly know css and html, someone who use Dreamweaver for instance, may no know how to work without it.. - If he knows Flash, he can make the choice to integrate some anims in his website, its a plus i guess Main point is, imo, clean coding with comments, clean psds, and good graphic feeling, its 90% hmm, i dont agree on 2 points :

- Handcoding prove that he perfectly know css and html, someone who use Dreamweaver for instance, may no know how to work without it..

- If he knows Flash, he can make the choice to integrate some anims in his website, its a plus i guess

Main point is, imo, clean coding with comments, clean psds, and good graphic feeling, its 90%

]]> By: Adam Messinger http://www.sillybean.net/2005/02/what-to-look-for-in-a-professional-web-developer/comment-page-1/#comment-462 Adam Messinger Sun, 19 Mar 2006 22:56:52 +0000 http://www.sillybean.net/archives/647/#comment-462 I have to disagree with your claim that hand-coding everything is a sign of a bad designer. An efficient web designer/developer will use, at the least, a lightweight template system put together with PHP includes or similar methods. This allows you to write structural code once and use it everywhere. Free CMS software like Textpattern and WordPress are also excellent for this kind of thing, with the added bonus for your clients that they'll be able to update their own sites. I have yet to use a visual editor that I trust to produce clean, standards-compliant code consistently. Some of them <em>can</em> be made to behave, but only with more effort than is worth my time. Give me a copy of <a href="http://jedit.org/" rel="nofollow">jEdit</a> any day. It's free, powerful, and works on any platform I may find myself using. Of course, this largely boils down to personal preference. I don't think it's fair, however, to say that the choice to hand-code is a sign of a bad hire. I have to disagree with your claim that hand-coding everything is a sign of a bad designer. An efficient web designer/developer will use, at the least, a lightweight template system put together with PHP includes or similar methods. This allows you to write structural code once and use it everywhere. Free CMS software like Textpattern and WordPress are also excellent for this kind of thing, with the added bonus for your clients that they’ll be able to update their own sites.

I have yet to use a visual editor that I trust to produce clean, standards-compliant code consistently. Some of them can be made to behave, but only with more effort than is worth my time. Give me a copy of jEdit any day. It’s free, powerful, and works on any platform I may find myself using.

Of course, this largely boils down to personal preference. I don’t think it’s fair, however, to say that the choice to hand-code is a sign of a bad hire.

]]>