Do

You want to code your own website? - DO NOT FORGET THE MAINTENANCE!

Writing coding is not just a matter of putting the coding in the right place so that your program or page
works as you want it to. No. It is also a question or writing it so that when the time comes for changes the page or screen of coding is as easy to read as a child's reading primer. (And I use the verb 'writing' but I obviously mean 'typing' as we code on the PC of course.) Having said that, for beginners its worth considering actually writing your first attempts on paper, just to get the hang of things.

A word about HTML editors. The ones I know are NVU, 1stPage and Dreamweaver and no doubt there are another hundred out there. My advice to all beginners is ignore them and use good old "Notepad" until you have reached a reasonable level of 'fluency' that you are comfortable with. "Notepad", I find gives that old-fashioned 'hands-on' experience which will stand you in good stead later. But, to continue.

As we old programmers used to say, "If you write spaghetti you get spaghetti!". Not a deep, philosophical remortgages bad credit I'll admit but it illustrates the point. In a 'regular' computer program the logic must be apparent and clear as soon as you set your eyes on it. Not a tangled web of 'spaghetti'. And the same is true of your HTML coding for your webpage or site. It must be apparent and clear!

What's that I hear you say? "But I'm the one who wrote it and I'm the only one who'll be maintaining or
changing it so as long as I understand it....". True up to a point. But when you have 10 sets of coding for 10 different sites and you come back to them after a period of time, well, if it's 'pasta' then you may be scratching your head trying to get back into what you coded all those weeks earlier.

(NOTE: Because my examples need more links in this article than allowed I've grouped them on
an example page, it opens in a new page and can be found in below. Please open it and access when advised.)

This is a great example of real student loan consolidation comparison And believe me, I've seen similar on the web on live sites!

Please click "Real spaghetti" on the example link page.

By the way the coding is correct, it'll do exactly what its supposed to, display a table with orderly content. But yes, tough to make any changes. So here's the same coding but organized a tad better.

Please click "Less spaghetti" on the example link page.

You'll agree, much clearer than our first version but still needs a high blood pressure and comb, and too much time, to get to the nitty-gritty. So let's operate one more time.

Please click "Proper coding" on the example link page.

Now we immediately see the structure of the table. All the elements are visible and the indents give us
the building block relationships. Tables within tables should follow the same rules, for example.

Please click "Structured" on the example link page.

Always use as much space as you need to build that visual image of the coding you're writing. Some systems force you to do it, others, like HTML, need you to organize it. Don't forget you construct your webpage on 'paper' first. Then any changes or maintenance will be easy and quick.

There will be another 5 articles on this subject eventually.

Thanks for your time.

More information about the-html-bookthe structure of HTML coding. Opens in a new page.
More information about Mike Hayes mike-hayes.nlhere. Opens in a new page.