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Why I hand code

October 13, 2003 | View Comments (11) | Category: Design

Summary: Why I hand code and maybe why you should consider it.

Disclaimer: If you don't like to hand-code then fine. This is not an argument about why you should consider it, but the reasons why I do it. Also this mainly pertains to xhtml/css coding instead of database or programming language coding.

To learn how anything works in this world most of the time you have to dig into the guts of it. You can not sit there and look at it and figure out what little intricacies make it tick. I can not look at a computer and tell you how it works. I could read a book and then tell you how much thermal grease should be applied to the heatsink, but how could I tell you how much does 0.5 grams of thermal grease look like without having done so myself? If I am to truly understand my page then I have to make them by hand.

Painting with a purpose

Every artist has a story behind their painting. They can tell you that every stroke has a purpose. Nothing is ever done just for the sake of doing it. When you hand code your pages every item you add is added for a purpose. You take a greater sense in what you are doing and have a greater understanding of your own pages. Your work should be your own and if you do not understand it then it never becomes your own.

Typewriters are evil

I have a theory about classical literature. I believe that their are more classical works and will always be more classical works written before the typewriter than there ever will be after. The reason I believe this is because writers had to take more care into what they put down on paper before the typewriter came about. They could not waste too many resources on unnecessary words. When they wrote the first "T" in "The" to start the novel they knew why they did it. They felt the "T" being written and therefore immersed themselves in their own novels. Their works truly became their own. You can never get to that level of immersion with a typewriter or word processor. You can not get to that level with a WYSIWYG editor.

It is great that software is beginning to show greater support for CSS and produce better markup. However, a big criticism I have about certain pages is the html/xhtml document itself. When I have to hand-code a page I force myself to seriously consider the structure. I really wonder if it is worth it to add a <div> or simply place a class within the paragraph. Looking at my CSS Google I will admit that my original had a ton of unnecessary markup, but if you look at the code now, I do not know how much more cleaner I could make it.

Power and Control

Hand coding my pages gives me unprecedented control over where each element appears on the page. I control where each element goes. I control how my code is formatted (unless MT botches it up). I have the power. I have the control.

There is a time and a place

I am not saying that I write out every single html page on a site. It would be silly to hand code a hundred headers when all you need to do is write one header and simply include it in all of your files. I hand coded the includes for this site. I hand coded the templates to every page and therefore I know what makes this site tick. I do not hand code my entries because there is no need. MovableType does this work for me. The site is coded and now automated for me so that I can focus on the content that I write (be it through a keyboard). Zeldman and others like to hand code each one of their entries for their own reasons. I do not have any good reasons to do something like that. My entries usually only consists of a <p> here and a <h3> there.

I never understood why schools make their students design pages through WYSIWYG editors. I am sure there are reasons, but to me it is like teaching someone how to paint by numbers. If you really want to be good and gain an appreciation for your own hard work then hand coding is where it is at. Some may believe that as a designer maybe the code should not be the most important thing. That make sense, but then I guess an artist should not learn how different brush sizes affect the strokes on a painting or a photographer the different shutterspeeds of a camera. My point is the code becomes part of the design. Sure over time when I have done over a 1000 layouts in CSS, maybe I could go to a WYSIWYG editor and start whipping out pages. However, I am pretty quick now coming up with layouts since I am so used to hand-coding them myself.

All of this is far from different then when I am doing "real" programming involving a language such as C# or the likes. Something like that obviously is better served using an IDE over a text editor. But when I am just going with XHTML, CSS, and some small PHP then Vim works fine for me. Of course when creating new sites today, I implement old code from other sites. That requires a simple cut and paste without the need to retype everything. It would be silly to do so otherwise. I have a basic stylesheet that I keep and begin with whenever starting a new project so it is not necessary to start anew. The same goes with basic xhtml pages and headers. I freely admit to using tools like listamatic today, because I know how the code it produces works. It saves some time when designing, but I would not have known the code beforehand had I not hand-coded on sites before.

That is why I hand code. If you don't I am not saying shame on you at all. Keep doing what you do and I will keep doing what I do (Editor's Note: Whoops! :)). If you know of any other tools that help you design faster then please feel free to share them with me because I am always looking at increasing the speeds at which I design a site without harming the actual design itself.

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