Void's Forums

Hi.

I have not got a clue in designing web pages, so I usually pay someone
to design the pages and give me the code back.
( A coder I might be - but an artist I am not)

So I then hack the pages to install and integrate the PHP code that I
need afterwards eg. database accesses and loading dropdown boxes.

Accept for it being a long process and not having found a proper ide to
do all of this - what do you guys use? AM I missing some sort of
proper ide that is available?

There are enough reasons for me not using java etc. and I therefore
try and do everything I can to use PHP - any alternatives?

To me it seems the way I am doing it to be a massive waste of time,
and everytime there is a major change on the pages I have to redo
just about everything. Been doing these convertions for about the
past three years on and off and only do it as an addedd benefit to
my clients.

The number of books I've bought and Inet sites visited, seems to me
all to only give part of the answer, never all of it in one go. Same
with guys who do this for a living - never a full answer.

Any comments appreciated.
Regards

PS. If you have to shoot - aim high - low down it hurts....

I do a lot of PHP in my day job as well (along with several other languages). I also do not consider myself a "designer" but more of a nuts & bolts back end type of programmer. We did hire a guy who does do good design work as well as being a good PHP programmer. Both of us use VIM as our editors (for everything). The last IDE I personally used would have been quite a long time ago, probably Turbo Pascal 7 or an early Borland C. I don't have any hard data on this but I can't imagine anyone could create web apps any faster with an IDE than we do it with VIM.

Having said that I can see where it could be a pain if someone creates the front-end HTML in some sort of crazy IDE that spits out pretty web pages but ugly unformatted code which would make it a pain to turn it into dynamic PHP based code. Maybe I'm not the best one to comment on this, sorry. :)

Why not write a frame work page with most fo the functions already implemented, or given placeholders and give that to the designer. And tell them to use CSS then maintainance will be easier, you need to find someone like Ecsyle who know swhat he is doing and isn't scared of the code

Yes, what Tux said ^^^^^. That is what I meant to say. :) Very good advice Tux! Heck, maybe caveman can hire Ecsyle to do his front-end stuff. Looks like Ecsyle is getting very good at it!

Yep Tux - thats about what I am doing allready..

I give them a set of rules that they are supposed to follow that allows
me the ease of putting tht PHP code in afterwards.. This also sets
the rules of how to remove all the rubbish code that gets generated
by default..

So it seems to me that the way I am doing it is about what everybody
else is doing.

AND yep - I use VIM for all my editing as well - even use it on my
winbloze boxes - which pisses those guys off no end heh heh..

I am once again only a one-man show.. left the previous "employment"
end of April.. so I am forced to do as much as possible by myself
to make sure I at least make some money!

Anything that saves time or makes it easier and faster is therefore
to my benefit AND that does not make for bloated code.