Tools of the trade
It has been a while since I posted. So, here comes - this one is a technical post on my never ending search for the right tools available for website development.
Given that I'm really a database developer, it's a little ironic that my first tech post be related to the UI development. I somehow seem to have developed an intense interest in UI development over the past few months and have been since searching for the right tools of the trade. Anyway, let me start with the post
I learnt a little bit of HTML (well, I hardly know anyone who is a software-developer and has managed to keep off from at least sniffing any HTML pages). Then I went on to learn CSS, and more importantly details on how to use CSS properly. I found the book by Richard York a very good guide and reference. Further on, I went on to explore the world of Document Object Model and the book by Jeremy Keith is very well written (though I am yet to read it fully). The next logical progression was Ajax and I did a quick read of the second book by Jeremy Keith on the same topic.
All in all, I am very impressed by the amount of work that has gone to try and standardize and bring a semblance of order to the chaotic market of web-development. I surely hope that we continue on the same path and all the browsers will adapt to the w3c standards.
There is however, one aspect of this whole thing that I am disappointed with. Ever since I got fascinated by UI development for web, I have also been fervently searching for the right tools to help developing web pages and websites. There are a lot of tools available on the Internet to aid development of HTML pages or CSS. But somehow, I always felt there is something missing in every one of them. Even in Dreamweaver - which is considered very highly by professional UI designers, though I found plenty of good features, it somehow did not implement the design principles touted in all the good books of XHTML and CSS.
The problem, I realized was not with the tools - but the lack of any kind of design framework. What I mean is, for example - the books on CSS make it abundantly clear to separate data (in HTML) from display logic (in CSS). They also provide examples of using "div" tags etc - so the concept is clear. However, that is not enough to start "designing" a website. We also need to know what the framework is in designing a page. For example, there are going to be several elements in a page. Are we going to assign div tag for each of the item? What if webpages are quite different from one another? Should we design a new CSS file for every webpage? What is a good way of writing CSS for elements so we when we search for some markup, we don't have to do a repeated "find" on the CSS file? I found no answers to any of these questions. It is left totally up to the developer whatever way he or she wants to design the elements. What I did find were several "CSS Templates" - both free and paid - and one can use whatever template that nearly suits the need. You open such templates along with the HTML in Dreamweaver, you don't know where and how your changes on the editor are handled. I did find a website trying to provide some direction to the business of providing design frameworks, but you see and realize that there is still a long way to go.
The next step that I would like to see is some sort of basic design framework - helpful tips on what is a reasonably good approach given a certain problem. May be some sort of "patterns" to borrow a term from Java development. And then, the tools to implement all those patterns. That would really ease web development.
Given that I'm really a database developer, it's a little ironic that my first tech post be related to the UI development. I somehow seem to have developed an intense interest in UI development over the past few months and have been since searching for the right tools of the trade. Anyway, let me start with the post
I learnt a little bit of HTML (well, I hardly know anyone who is a software-developer and has managed to keep off from at least sniffing any HTML pages). Then I went on to learn CSS, and more importantly details on how to use CSS properly. I found the book by Richard York a very good guide and reference. Further on, I went on to explore the world of Document Object Model and the book by Jeremy Keith is very well written (though I am yet to read it fully). The next logical progression was Ajax and I did a quick read of the second book by Jeremy Keith on the same topic.
All in all, I am very impressed by the amount of work that has gone to try and standardize and bring a semblance of order to the chaotic market of web-development. I surely hope that we continue on the same path and all the browsers will adapt to the w3c standards.
There is however, one aspect of this whole thing that I am disappointed with. Ever since I got fascinated by UI development for web, I have also been fervently searching for the right tools to help developing web pages and websites. There are a lot of tools available on the Internet to aid development of HTML pages or CSS. But somehow, I always felt there is something missing in every one of them. Even in Dreamweaver - which is considered very highly by professional UI designers, though I found plenty of good features, it somehow did not implement the design principles touted in all the good books of XHTML and CSS.
The problem, I realized was not with the tools - but the lack of any kind of design framework. What I mean is, for example - the books on CSS make it abundantly clear to separate data (in HTML) from display logic (in CSS). They also provide examples of using "div" tags etc - so the concept is clear. However, that is not enough to start "designing" a website. We also need to know what the framework is in designing a page. For example, there are going to be several elements in a page. Are we going to assign div tag for each of the item? What if webpages are quite different from one another? Should we design a new CSS file for every webpage? What is a good way of writing CSS for elements so we when we search for some markup, we don't have to do a repeated "find" on the CSS file? I found no answers to any of these questions. It is left totally up to the developer whatever way he or she wants to design the elements. What I did find were several "CSS Templates" - both free and paid - and one can use whatever template that nearly suits the need. You open such templates along with the HTML in Dreamweaver, you don't know where and how your changes on the editor are handled. I did find a website trying to provide some direction to the business of providing design frameworks, but you see and realize that there is still a long way to go.
The next step that I would like to see is some sort of basic design framework - helpful tips on what is a reasonably good approach given a certain problem. May be some sort of "patterns" to borrow a term from Java development. And then, the tools to implement all those patterns. That would really ease web development.
posted by Shreyas | 8:14 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks for your leaving a comment, Jessika. Indeed, there are several templates available. The question really is how to "design" a good website, or for that matter, even a good template! My search is still on!
BTW - you may also want to see my latest post "tools of the trade - part 2"!
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