OT Really dumb website question.

I really should say this

Mark Goodall - ATL - tooljunkie

>Perhaps this is not necessary, but I forget sometimes that other people besides the main responders are readign these threads, so I'll say it JUST in case it helps anyone......

All this talk about installing Web Servers for testing isn't necessary if all you are writing/creating are client side type files. This includes HTML, CSS and JS (javascript) files.

It certainly is great to be able to test your web pages locally on your PC or at least in your network without having to upload them to your web hostign server. And modern tools like Dreamweaver and FrontPage (gasp) have a facility to "test" pages by showing you how they would come if they were on a server.

But these are some people who don't realize that you can simply open files in a web browser on your PC.

Instead of putting http://www.mydomain.com/mycoolpage.html in your browsers address bar, you can put file:\\C:\MyFolder\mycoolpage.html and it will work just the same.

As logn as you're writing files that are client side files, like HTML,CSS and JS then you web browser has everything it needs to display it properly. In fact your web browser doesn't care WHERE the files come from, server or otehrwise.

Now any files you may create that REQUIRE a server, like .ASP or .PHP files, then your Browser can't use them properly.

I hope this makes sense. Ask if it doesn't.

And likely everyone reading this already knows this, but I can remember sitting in my office back in the 90's and hitting my forehead and say HEY, OF COURSE I CAN DO THAT, when I figured that out ;)

Happy Woodworking!

Thanks for the good info, Mark

Ellis Walentine

>FWIW, I test everything on the live server. I have found that sometimes there are slight differences in versions of scripting languages like Perl and PHP and Javascript from one server to the next that can mess up a page or a format, and the only way to reliably test it is on the actual server where it will be served to the Web. I'm a mile wide and an inch deep on most of this stuff, though, so maybe I'm just being better safe than sorry.

Ellis

Just want to add to Joe and Mark's comments

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

>Joe wrote:

IMO, hand coding html tags is a waste of time. it's like using an ink well and a feather instead of a ball point pen.

I agree. It's important to get the gist of it, but to code pages that way really is a waste of time with the tools that are available. It's not efficient.

Mark wrote:

But make something free AND automatically installed (easy) and which will people tend to use?

That, plus like I said yesterday, the corporate world embraces MS based solutions for the most part. It's a good selling point for software shops and consultants. If I could only put one on my resume, it would be ASP, not PHP experience...

We used to do all our stuff based on Pervasive databases. Not anymore. MS SQL2003/2005 is light years ahead now. And, all the MS products are designed to play nicely with each other. Mark is right. Someday we will all be controlled my Microsoft robots!

Lastly, the bottom line is that basically PHP, ASP, whatever, are server based technologies that simply take your server based code and script and output html that a browser can interpret. Also keep in mind what Mark has warned us about - one of these days the MS Robots will find PHP based stuff on your server and destroy it. I don't even want to think about what will happen if it finds and Apple machine on your network! :)

Just my lowly opinions...

Joe

hey Joe

Joe Piotrowski - Chicago Burb's

>a product we sell is a data mining report tool called Targit. the features on SQl 2005/analisis server, VS2005 are so much better for data warehousing. I went through a 4 day intensive certification course for Targit and it made use of SQL 2005 and analysis server and vs 2005. having never even seeing these product version before and I zipped through them.

the strength of MS has never been the OS. people get lost in that fact. it's strength had been Office and development tools.

they bought all the leading ERP solutions and are now the 800lb gorilla in the mid market. if you want to work in a cooperate environment in larger workspaces you have to be MS or oracle.

the only benefit of the open source movement is that you can find a niche to make some cash or at least your mark on society. There are open markets in the linux world and if you can get there faster than the big guys you can make a difference.

plus the free stuff to learn on is great. at the end of the day, what differentiates a programmer from a software developer is the ability construct solutions and follow a complete development cycle from beginning to end.

when I hire some one ,I give a higher priority to there ability to deliver a solution before the tools used. after all these are just tools.

think of it in woodworking terms. if you are very good at making things and have used a TS your whole life and I want to hire you but I only have band saw. I would judge you on the quality of your work not the tools you used to make it.

Point taken - thanks.

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

>

Re: Mark, Mark, Mark�

Steve Strickland

>isn't it actually

.container {

margin left right: auto;

}

Re: L.A.M.P.

Steve Strickland

>a huge advantage of L.A.M.P. is it can deliver W3C compliant web pages to all browsers running in strict mode.

ASP appears utterly incapable of doing that, even for the simplest possible web page.

Also, I've yet to see a WSYWYG HTML editor that generates compliant code, no matter who's brand name is on it or what platform it works under.