Why handcode?

well, myself i ain't that experienced, i mostly just create most of my pages with dreamweaver, and than switch to code view to filter all crap and not w3c compliant nonsense out of it. works pretty fast, and i mean, if you really plan to create sites for a long time, and even make money with it, i think you should consider buying dreamweaver. i know it's much money, but hey, just don't buy an ipod and get dreamweaver.it's a great program.

Originally Posted by jono1 I handcode because I prefer having an intimate knowledge of exactly how the site works so i know exactly where to go if there's a problem, because I wrote every line of code myself. With Dreamweaver all I have an intimate knowledge of is some boxes on the screen.

Good point to be made.

Justin.

because hand coding keeps your skills sharp?

if i stopped hand coding and started using DW for a few months, i probably wouldn't improve as fast as i would if i hand code.

if you built a car with your own hands, wouldn't you know exactly how it works? if you purchased a machine that automates the process for you and does everything for you, you wouldn't know your car as well.

maybe i just don't trust programs and machines
but i also don't want to become dependant on something, like DW for example.

Originally Posted by jono1 I handcode because I prefer having an intimate knowledge of exactly how the site works so i know exactly where to go if there's a problem, because I wrote every line of code myself. With Dreamweaver all I have an intimate knowledge of is some boxes on the screen.

My feelings exactly

this is one of those areas where the saying is true: to each his own

Originally Posted by Koobi because hand coding keeps your skills sharp? if i stopped hand coding and started using DW for a few months, i probably wouldn't improve as fast as i would if i hand code. if you built a car with your own hands, wouldn't you know exactly how it works? if you purchased a machine that automates the process for you and does everything for you, you wouldn't know your car as well. maybe i just don't trust programs and machines but i also don't want to become dependant on something, like DW for example.

exactly.

Just what I was going to say.... and now I don't have anything to add.

...i also don't want to become dependant on something..

If I can handcode just great, I don't want to spend the money on a program like that if I can do it myself.

I really like the code-editor in DW, it points out errors and hitting ctrl-space gives me a list of tags and the arguments always. So I handcode in DW. Also the CSS editor is nice for times when you don't want to type that css file for hours.

Also recommended for handcoding is TopStyle Pro/Lite, it has as good a code-editor as DW and very good CSS support.
http://www.bradsoft.com/download/index.asp

I would never pay money for an editor when I can/will hand code. I've been using notepad for near 10 years and a year or so ago swtiched to Crimson Editor. There's nothing nicer than having an orderly looking piece of code that I can read without going wtf. I make it a habit to try to lay down lean code. People who rely on packages though to produce things for them do have a disadvantage to those who keep their skills sharp. Writing compliant code is not rocket science if you know the basics of HTML.

I handcode because I prefer having an intimate knowledge of exactly how the site works so i know exactly where to go if there's a problem, because I wrote every line of code myself. With Dreamweaver all I have an intimate knowledge of is some boxes on the screen.

Ditto.

I like cutting out the middle man. Dreamweaver being faster is a risk I'll take, though I imagine any debugging might make that statement false. When you need to open the hood, I imagine hand coding is much easier.

I've used Dreamweaver and it never caught on. Prefer my text editor

Simple answer: because every WYSIWYG editor I've ever tried produces horrible code, and in the long run, it takes (me at least) longer trying to tweak their settings than just to do it properly in the first place.

When I started web development, I used a visual editor. After several months, it occurred to me that I could produce far superior code in less time by hand coding, and that is still the case.