building a web site?

Question

My question is what are the differences between ways to build a web site? I have have built web sites by coding with html in an editor. So what is the difference between scripting with html and others such as PHP? Why do people choose to use DreamWeaver and FrontPage when you can just edit the code in a normal editor like notepad?

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

Well you originally asked for different way to build a web site, and there are hundreds of programs out there that let you build a variety of different web sites.

You can have an entire html web site, or php. You can also build it entirely in flash or even java.

People use programs such as dreamweaver, frontpage, and hundreds of other programs, because they're easy.

It would take me less time to click one button, then it would be to type out the html code which would do the same thing.

People want ease of use and less typing.

The difference between html and php is how it's referenced.

Html is codes used to create a page.. Where php is a table based web site, where it is already built itself, which is why so many php web sites look exactly the same, with different themes. They are seperated into block where are referenced by a table that is stored in a database.

Answer 2

I hate to differ with the previous answerer but he has made several errors. There are as many different ways to build a website as there are people. First PHP is just a language like C++ what kind of page that you put out depends on what you code. The difference is that there is a module that can allow server software to interpret it. You can program with PHP and not even access the web but I have seen that done only rarely. You are not in any way limited to grids in fact I maintain that table based lay out should, as a rule, be avoided. The reason you use a tool like PHP is because unlike DOM scripting the program runs on the server not the client allowing better security and more consistency in output. You can access a data base and screen user input to prevent hacker attacks. You can actually build pages that don't exist until a user logsin. PHP is not the only server side language available there is Ruby again a scripting language. On the web Ruby is usually used in a frame work called Rails. PHP has a similar framework called Cake. Another alternative is ASP or ASP.net these are Microsoft solutions the problem is that as a rule you should run the on a Microsoft server. If you want to get out of modules and use CGI you can use languages like Perl or Python. Java Server pages are yet another option. Tools like Dreamweaver and Frontpage can speed up web development considerably. Dreamweaver can help keep you local files and remote files synchronized. Tools provide a graphical user interface, code autocompletion, validation. Some tools (like Aptana) provide a full blown integrated development enviornment for debugging your code. Speaking of this there are standards for web development and you should use web standards as much as possible. Reasearch Jeff Zeldman, WCAG, W3C, Unobtrusive JavaScript or go to www.webdesignfromscratch.com you can get a lot of pointers there

Answer 3

If you use plain HTML the text editor will do. However, if you use PHP, ASP, ASP.NET or any other language you will see tools like FrontPage, Dreamweaver, SuperEdit can help with statement autocompletion.

In Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition this is called intellisense. It guides you on the use of properties, functions, etc...

The reason for using tools like DW, FP, VWD, Visual Studio, etc.. is that they have Rapid Application Development routines that help speed the process such as creating database enabled applications.

You can code your applications with a text editor like UltraEdit and be successful, but why struggle instead of using RAD tools?

Cheers!

Answer 4

If you have just done websites in HTML then my man you have just scratched the surface of web development. PHP, ASP, JSP and so on and so forth can be classified as Server Side Programming Languages/Technologies. It enables you to build Database Driven websites which are more intelligent, in a way that they allow you to achieve more from your website. Want to go deeper? Try building sites using AJAX or FLEX.

Just to clear things up, HTML ONLY, is not web development. HTML to web development is like Ground Floor to a building but only Ground Floor cannot make a SkyScraper. So there is no website without HTML but huge projects cannot be made just with HTML.

Also HTML is Client Side language (you can say UI), where as there is a lot of stuff that happens at the back, thats where everything else comes in. Whereas, Ajax and Flex lie somewhere in the Gray area between Frontend and Backend.