Website Software?

[Brasel]

Does anyone have any good website software they recommend? I'm building a website for my band. I've used Frontpage before and my lead guitar player has Dreamweaver on his MAC, but I don't think he has a disk for it, and I'm not going to be able to use his computer. I'd rather not spend a ton of money, but I'll pay for the right price.

[Beldaran]

eh, just hard code it in Vim or something. Be a man!

[Anthus]

Or torrent some cracked software :shrug:

[Orion]

http://www.panic.com/coda/

It's a bit steep, but much cheaper than dreamweaver, and well worth it.

[Dark Nation]

Well, if you don't mind it being hosted over at MS, you can use Office Live. Their online web page creation thing isn't super awesome, but the results look fairly decent. And it's free (you have to pay for a domain name if you want one, though).

http://www.officelive.com/en-us/

[Brasel]

eh, just hard code it in Vim or something. Be a man!

Dude, when I was in high school, I would build websites in notepad. Im pretty busy these days and I'm trying to make it as quick and painless as possible. I have a host and a domain already, I'm just trying to get some good software.

I'm going to look into this Coda software. I just wanted to see what people recommended if they used it at all. I can do a little research, but I want some trusted opinions if you know what I mean.

[Orion]

I guess if you're looking into quick work, RapidWeaver is probably a bit cheaper. It's web design by template, so the results always like cookie-cutter websites. That could be good or bad depending on who you're building it for. Oh, and Coda does have a 14-day trial.

[AtmaWeapon]

Get a MySpace Music page or something like that if you want it to be quick and painless. I'm going to be a crotchety old man about it.

WYSIWYG tools are a joke and you are the butt of it. Computers suck at generating code, particularly for an ambiguous and carefree language like HTML. WYSIWYG tools tend to puke out blobs of inefficient code that works fine on some browsers and not well on others; editing it to fix it is nearly impossible. Word is the worst offender; 400 characters worth of HTML will turn into a 3MB file once Word's done cramming in all of its proprietary styling. The only WYSIWYG tool that I know serious web developers use is Visual Studio, and that's because it's practically impossible to produce ASP .NET outside of the IDE. The other guys all use some highly customized variant of Emacs, Vim, or that Mac text editor that gets a lot of praise. By themselves, the editors are primitive. With a few customizations, they become tools of the gods. (For example, I practice Code Katas from time to time. Today I wept after watching a screencast of someone doing a kata in Vim. The fastest version of this kata I've seen in Visual Studio clocked in at 7 minutes and it was *fast*. With a well-trained Vim, this one clocked in at 2 minutes 45 seconds. With visible pauses where the coder stopped typing so you could read the code. A thing of beauty!)

In general, using a WYSIWYG tool is like using a wizard to generate code. I've never met a wizard that produced good output. I used to use wizards to generate skeletons of what I needed then clean up the garbage; turns out I spent more time playing garbage man than it takes to write my own wizards. With a WYSIWYG tool you'll probably be able to make a web site that's somewhere between "Geocities" and "MySpace". Why not save money and use MySpace? In my opinion, it'll take you as long to get a tool to barf out a good web site as it will take you to learn to write the HTML yourself.

(I'm not here to argue, that's just my viewpoint. I've never met a web design tool I liked.)

[vegeta1215]

I tried NVU a long time ago, and it was nice for WYSIWYG software: http://net2.com/nvu/ (plus it's available on Windows, Mac, and Linux)

[avatar]

I think you should look for this software in rapidshare or torrent website...

[King Link]

Personally, I like the Dreamweaver set of tools. Simplistic if you wish, but it can go quite in depth. I also have more experience with Fireworks as well.
To be honest, I only started using these programs again about a week ago, and I guess they are now part of Adobe's programs.

Dreamweaver, anyways, is what I recommend. And Fireworks.

[Mercy]

In general, using a WYSIWYG tool is like using a wizard to generate code.
I agree with Atma's entire post but think generating pages with a WYSIWYG then deconstructing down to the essentials (playing garbage man is apt; script-bloat is inevitable with all WYSIWYG's) is good for those who know some html but get hung up on the bits they have not learned yet. Not something I would do any more but I would promote it as an option before any of the fill-in-the-fields insta-pages you find via MySpace and the like.

I am not looking to derail the topic, but there is backlash starting, that interests me, of negative responses towards those using the social networking sites as their primary face for business. Are the social networking sites destined to become an integral part of how we use the 'net, will they become the fodder of future nerd ridicule as per AOL, or simply fade into oblivion like froups? Not that this actually means anything at this time...I just tend to think...too much.

That said, at this point in time, social networking sites actually have advantages for promoting such as bands and may not be a bad idea for a little while. Taking advantage of current trends is one of the key elements of promoting anything. And it could mark time while a more robust personal site is built.

CSS is the bestest.

-m.

[Orion]

To promote myself (as a graphic designer), I have my own portfolio website for use in applying for jobs, and a facebook account, which promotes my freelance work. I think it's just all about adapting to the times, who knows what the best way to reach people will be in five years. Gone are the days where you can just hand someone a resume and be considered for a job.

[jerome]

I think you should look for this software in rapidshare or torrent website...

Or torrent some cracked software :shrug:
I think this would create bad things for them in the future if you're in to the whole karma thing. I mean how exactly could they get pissed off that they aren't making any money later because of people stealing, oh I mean "sharing", their music when they are stealing software to create their own website?

Sorry about the rant, but my guitar teacher had told me of his story of a "fan" having come up to him to tell him that he liked his new CD so much, he burned himself a copy off his friend's CD. Kind of the same thing.

The MySpace idea, that others have already mentioned, isn't that bad. Isn't that how Dane Cook got famous?

[Mercy]

Isn't that how Dane Cook got famous?
Who's Dane Cook?

-m

[jerome]

I mean no offense, but I'm not sure if that's a serious question or sarcasm.

If it's serious, he's a comedian and an actor. He was in "Good Luck Chuck" and "Mr. Brooks" (probably others, I don't know). I really don't like him so much as a comedian, but he was REALLY good in "Mr. Brooks" with Kevin Costner. His comedy, to me, is too "I'm spastic, laugh at me, ha ha, I'm funny."

[SUCCESSOR]

Notepad. Lol That's all I ever used. I tried dreamweaver one time... like 10 years ago lol hated it. I don't use HTML anymore. I fail as a designer. But if I was to use HTML again it would be in Notepad.

Make a Myspace and a simple to the point website. Nothing pisses me off more than a shitty website trying to be more than it can be. Or a Myspace page for that matter. I don't use myspace anymore. Facebook.