Current Expertise of Web Professionals?

[ratman7]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I worked in the tech industry in the 90's but have been pursuing other things for the past few years. I have recently decided to start a web services consulting firm, and have dived back into the web, web technology, and web development.

But I have noticed something, and I'd like to get some feedback on it:
I have seen a more than a few posts on webdev forums like this one from people working in the industry who cheerily admit that they don't really know html or CSS and proudly get by with WYSIWYG tools... Or people who use blog templates and pass them off as web sites. My recollection of not so long ago is that you would be laughed out of the office by any legit designer or developer if you confessed to using something like FrontPage.

Is it my imagination or have things changed a little bit? I know WYSIWYG tools have gotten better but I always thought that people involved in designing and maintaining web pages should have an idea of what is going on in the code.

My question is really directed towards people who have been in the field for 5+ years. I'd be interested to hear your perspective.

[doleks]

Ok!
It is difficult to show one reason. But opinion that there are two main reason. Now there are incredible quantity of ready made solution. If you want to make something simple and usual you do not need to know about programming at all. You can get full featured eCommerce site without any coding. And another reason that almost each dog has his own site in internet. Internet is full of self made pages. That's why everybody think that web-site development is only about WYSIWYG tools. It is not true. If you have normal client with normal budget you will make in classic way. Of cause 90% of your solution will be out-of-the-box but the rest of staff you need to make yourself.

[KDLA]

My recollection of not so long ago is that you would be laughed out of the office by any legit designer or developer if you confessed to using something like FrontPage.

You are absolutely right, in one sense: if the webmaster is using FrontPage in design view only. Some people (like me) use FP or DW in code view, which is perfectly fine. (I use DW because of the color coding of HTML, the site referencing, and the batch link updating, that's about it.) As long as you know what is going on with your code and can fix it without the program's interference, it's OK to use a WYSIWYG editor.

I've been in web development and web design for 7+ years.

[doleks]

Absolutely agree!

Without it you will spend a lot of your time for nothing.