Re: Just getting started on the FAQ site...

On Fri, 30 May 2008, Don Aitken <don-aitken@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, 30 May 2008 16:28:56 +0100, John Prentice wrote:
<much snipping>

Hi everyone,

Just so that you know there's movement, the Content Management System
is now up and running - not without a fight! It's not one I've used before,
so it's taking a little getting used to.

The site is at http://www.genealogy-britain.org.uk/

An amazing job in such a short time !
Congratulations but, . . . my envy knows no bounds !

Out of curiosity, I threw the URL at W3C Markup Validation.

One error only . . .
Line 172, Column 14: end tag for "table" which is not finished.
I only wish that my own had checked out as well initially !
(And yes, my errors have now been corrected !)

It has all the usual faults which are becoming so common. Especially,
I suspect, on sites using "content management systems". I quailed when
I saw the phrase, but thought I should wait to see the result before
commenting. One of the main features of the HTML standard is that what
the site looks like ought to be determined, as far as possible, by the
visitor, not the designer.

I don't know what experience you have of doing a fairly major site
using 'pure' HTML but it can take *weeks* of work to get it right !

I've just re-hashed my site which has been around for about ten years,
much of it relating to another newsgroup. Had it not been for the fact
that I was treating the re-write as 'entertainment', I'd probably have
given up around day 3. For any curious onlookers . . .
http://www.ian-stewart.eu/informer.html

Curiously the only big problem I had was trying to get it to render
correctly in IE which 'broke' my graphics . . .
Firefox and Opera were fine.

And every page is intolerably cluttered.

It *is* a work in progress !!!
I dumped two templates after a fair bit of work on them
because I wasn't happy with them.

Looking at the HTML code makes me want to be sick.

I must admit that I have difficulty getting to grips with code
using 'staggered' start points on lines and find it easier to
read when everything is left-aligned.

The difference between 'generated' and 'hand-coded' ?

I certainly join those who thank you for your efforts, but I also
seriously urge you to dump this "system" before you get too committed
to it, and rethink from the beginning. Even Hugh can be right
sometimes - form before content is a mistake. All that is needed is
straight text with a few HTML tages inserted by hand.

If only it were so easy !

Nice one John, don't let the knockers put you off !
.

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