I haven’t written a post about something like this in a while and after an experience with a client just now who happens to use MS Frontpage (see at bottom of post). I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and add to the hundreds of thousands of people on the internet who write Frontpage vs Dreamweaver blog post, forum post and articles (google search came up with 622,000 results for the phrase frontpage vs dreamweaver).

A few years ago when I was still messing around with design as more or less a hobby I used to use MS Frontpage. You would of never heard me say that Frontpage was evil or that it sucked. But today I can’t tell you enough how bad it is with the horrible code it writes for you (if using wyswyg editor), even if your using the code view it’s still horrible as it seems to have a mind of it’s own and do it’s own thing. Today I am in complete love with Dreamweaver although it too doesn’t do such a great job in wyswyg view but i write everything from scratch and in code view, which most designers should be doing anyhow. I have tried other programs but nothing seems to compare to it. I know the ultimate coder would say to use notepad, i just find using dreamweaver a few steps easier.

Frontpage code is overly bloated
Only good at working with the IE browser
It doesn’t write valid html
To use it to connect with a server you must have frontpage extensions installed (yuck)
The list can go on and on

While doing the search for Frontpage vs Dreamweaver I came acrossed a forum where a guy had posted about being fired from a client because his client had a friend that had frontpage and they thought they could do the job alot cheaper with using it. The client apparently said he would keep him for advice/support. Another poster said, let him be and when he needs your help to fix something or ask your assistance on something boost up your rates. Another poster posted this and I just found it amusing…

“Sell yourself (and his idiocy) not on the tools used, but the knowledge of how to use the tools.”

Shortly to be replied by

“Precisely. When the plumber handed the customer a bill that the customer demanded to have, the customer was shocked!

“A thousand dollars? All you did was knock 3 times on the pipe?”

“Yes sir. 100 dollars a knock, 700 for knowing where to knock.”.

Now on to why I decided to write this post. I had been working on a forum for a client to integrate it into his site so that it would blend right in, It was looking so good, I only had a little bit further to go till I was complete with the job. How ever he decided to take a look at the files, the header file to be exact which happens to be the file I did the most work on. He claims he didn’t touch anything and that he didn’t save the file but now when you view his forum more then half of the work I have done is now gone.

Here is a problem for me, last night I was going around on my computer and cleaning up alot of un needed files and organizing my self. I deleted all the files related to his forum as I assumed they were all safe on the server and I was going to grab fresh copies of them and have them a lil more organized this afternoon while i went to finish up the site.

After he told me what he did I just knew in the back of my head that he must of used Frontpage. I had to ask and as I suspected I was correct. I had to make a comment regarding frontpage and kindly asked him not to touch any of the files till I was done with his forum.

This sucks so bad

In December of 2004 I started to play around with a forum.  At the time I knew nothing about how to install them or anything related to them.  I barely knew how to use them. 

Shortly after using an automatic feature to install my forum.  I had people tell me that I should convert my forum to a better script (forum).  I had no idea what to do.  I read the instructions but it totally confused the heck out of me.  I finally got it done, and it shocked the heck out of me.  Then I had people saying that I should install modifications to the forum to give it extra features.  That is what really confused me.  It was a totally different language for me.  Yes it tells you in the modifications to look for this and add or replace with that.  But I still just didn’t get it.

I then met a guy from Canada on phpbb.com named Indie (David).  He was nice enough to try to explain it to me but I still  could not grasp it.  He then went ahead and installed the modifications working hours with me on things.  After hours of talking to him, asking a billion and one questions and looking at what he did I slowly started to understand the process of adding modifications to forums, even though I still didn’t understand how the code worked.  Anyhow it became very addicting, I was always on the endless search for the coolest and newest mods.

I soon started to learn how to install scripts on my own.  And after hours and hours of staring at the PHP Language it started to make since to me.  Something that before looked like alot of numbers, odd characters, and unknown words all now automatically gets translated in my head.

So in one years time I went from using MS Frontpage WYSWYG (what you see what you get) editor to design websites (im so ashamed of my self for using it), not knowing anything about php or databases.  To creating/writing websites in code view with Dreamweaver and editing just about any php script to do what i want.  Of course some still requires the assistance of my friend Indie.

I have total faith in my self that in another year I will be creating my own scripts and databases from scratch.  Ohh yea if your wondering about Indie, he is now one of my best friends online.  We talk just about everyday for hours…..Thanks Indie….

And of course I say thanks to my husband for him dealing with my obsession to learn this and letting me be online constantly.  I love you..