More on fP 6.0 features

Tue Oct 26 16:07:39 PDT 2004

>From inside the gravity well of a singularity, John Esak shouted:
> 
> Oh, I just meant that you can build virtually _any_ HTML document from
> within the processing tables of filePro using the "atomic" HTML commands
> themselves. Essentially, until you have a few good working models,
> everything must be done at the lowest possible level of design. Just about
> in exactly the opposite way most HTML design tools work today... they create
> the whole page for you and you never see the HTML code at all... (unless you
> are me, who would much rather write my HTML code in vi...)  Anyway, these
> very low level, actual HTML commands are very useful, but writing with them
> is slow and laborious until you get some larger higher level models built,
> like forms and display pages, etc.

If you're referring to things like <body> and <hr> and such, well...yeah,
then I understand you.

I, like you, write all my HTML in vi.  When I need it in filePro, I have
that nifty little utility that makes a callable table out of a whole
document.  

The only time I've written -any- version of HTML in anything except vi was
when I tested Word's ability to do it (hated it), HotDog Pro (hated it),
and when I've used emacs instead of vi. :) I've tested some others over the
years.  I've never, ever liked a visual HTML editor.  They usually write
incredibly bloated HTML, and I don't like the lack of complete control
I'm afforded by doing it manually.  (As an example of bloat, I once reduced
a 27K HTML document from FrontPage to 1.5K of hand-trimmed HTML, and it was
functionally and visually identical--but loaded a LOT faster on 28.8 modems.)

Some may not believe this, but GUI HTML authoring tools actually -slow me
down-.  I've had people fire up FrontPage to create something for debugging
purposes while on the phone and I've finished before they had a chance
to get very far, and already been testing the CGI for which the form was
designed to be a front end.  I kid you not.

Maybe it's my typing speed.  Could be all that mouse/keyboad/mouse/keyboard
they have you do in GUI design tools.  Terribly slow by comparison for me.

mark->
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