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Quote of the Week:

All solitary dreamers know that they hear differently when they close their eyes.
-Gaston Bachelard

Notes from Notchcode

5.13.2008

Repost from the desert: Hand-crafted HTML

Now, all serious beer drinkers I know prefer homebrewed beer to Duff. A more hands-on experience in creating the product results in a product that has more character, more personality, and a betterness that is hard to describe; but you know it when you see it (or taste it, in this case). In our second repost from the desert, I talk about how and why hand-coded HTML is better than what you get from a machine, like an HTML layout program (Dreamweaver, and especially FrontPage, I'm looking at you!). This post originally appeared in March 2005. Enjoy. Meantime, I am going to go out to the pool.

Here it is:

I spent the better part of this afternoon doing web production on a medium-sized site due to go live in a few weeks, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about how I like to work.

Now, there are many decent, hard-working web page composition programs out there, most notably Dreamweaver; and I have used them extensively...in the past. But I've come to the conculsion that for 90 percent of all HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, PHP, and other acronymed web development work, I prefer to code by hand.

Old School!

Why? Well, once you learn the syntax, it's quicker. Trust me! And it allows you to create fast, clean code, without many of the pitfalls and extraneous bits that GUI-based programs like Dreamweaver can place into your pages without your knowledge. Anyone who has ever waded through Microsoft FrontPage-created webpage code will know what I am talking about.

Pretty much any text editor will do--even Microsoft Word, in a pinch--but I prefer BareBones Software's BBEdit. It's long been the de-facto standard in programming text editors, especially for web code writers. Why? Well, it's no-frills, function-specific approach to its interface is a big selling point.

And it is very user-friendly.

Case-in-point: it color-codes your code so you know if you are looking at an image source element, or a formatting element, or actual content, for example. Their motto: "It doesn't suck", says it all.

Yes, yes, Dreamweaver has a "code view" mode, so you can see the code as you mess about in GUI mode, but BBEdit also has a Preview mode, which allows you to see things as the browser will display them, so that arguement is a wash.

It comes down to this:

  1. did you grow up in the age of learning BASIC in school?

  2. Were you amazed when you found out that you could upgrade from a VIC-20 to a Commodore 64 and get all that extra processing power?

  3. Did you make ASCII art with your dot-matrix printer?



If so, you will prefer to code by hand. If not, you will probably prefer something like Dreamweaver.

Not that I'm judging you.

So if you really want to understand what this web thing is all about, look at some of your favorite webpages using "View Source", borrow a copy of O'Reilly's HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, and learn something new! Trust me, you'll love it!

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3.31.2008

Who Works Late?

My guess is: everyone.

Is working late the norm for you, or is it at least expected of you? I only ask because on my Basecamp site I notice a lot of clients--clients with different backgrounds, working in different industries--post responses far outside the normal "9-to-5" working hours. Most of the late--or early--posters are either in non-profit, internet-based, or startup businesses, but even some _governmental_ folks work odd hours.

What is your work schedule like? And do you work those hours because you are expected to, because you are more creative then, or because you get more done? Or is it just insomnia?

For me I simply have more time to do really creative work; I have always been on more of a musician's schedule (due to formative years spent in coffeehouses, sketching, I think) and so there's simply more creativity for design, even photography, late in the evening.

photo: Late Nights by djloche

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11.20.2007

iterative


Have you taken your design at least one step past where you feel comfortable with it today?

Iteration: it works.

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1.04.2007

Bright and Shiny

It's another spin around the sun, folks. Here are some things that will make it a more productive and enjoyable one:


OmniGraffle. This graphical diagramming tool is a real boon to anyone who needs to visualize a complex process, system, or flow of information. Say, a website, for example. And not only that, you can create wireframe prototypes (that actually work) with them, courtesy of Michael Angeles of urlgreyhot (which is one of the most inventive web development names I've come across in the last 12 months).

Lists. Yeah, baby. As sexy as ever, make some lists. Get it off your mind, onto paper, and then look at the damn things on a regular basis. The bonus: when you cross stuff off of a list, you feel good...sort of like laughing at a good joke. Or imbibing rare Tortolan rum. Or, whatever makes you feel good. If you really need help making a list, go get one of David Allen's books, or just buy a stack of index cards and a binder clip, and get going.

Personal Days. Use them or lose your soul, bit by bit. I would recommend a day spent with the phone and computer off, perhaps waiting until everyone else has left the house to get out of bed, followed by an hour or so at the coffeehouse, with another hour in a bookstore. Then lunch, a hike, and happy hour with some friends, who will undoubtedly pour your beer all over your head when you tell them what you were doing while they were working on their TPS reports.

Smile. Corny, I know. But it makes you feel good, and makes others around you feel good, too.

That's all the advice I am willing to give, in the context of starting a new year. Let me know how it works out. As for me, I am going to go take a nap. And then get back to work on those TPS reports.

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