THE POWER OF HANDCODING

PERSPECTIVE JHOAN T. BONGALBAL

For a beginner like me, who had just launched her very first handcoded website, web authoring is more of an amazement rather than accomplishment. It is fascinating to search for and view your own website through the Internet. But the wonders of web authoring are not rooted on mere fascination. The main purpose is to connect and get connected—that is why you decided to ‘publish’ your website with Internet as the medium (albeit there is a way on how to keep your website private, but that’s another story already.).

Building up your own website through handcoding requires effort indeed. You have to equip yourself with knowledge on HTML or Hypertext MarkUp Language, a text document used by web servers to display elements on a web page. Writing HTML is referred to as handcoding for an HTML document is a set of codes composed of tags and attributes (which are composed of parameters and values) written by hand. The most commonly used tool in handcoding is the Notepad on windows, wherein you create your own HTML document starting from a clean slate.

At first glance, HTML is as intricate as a cobweb. But as you gain knowledge and learn the principles of handcoding, things get easier. Learning HTML is not difficult either. There are a lot of books for dummies about HTML, and of course the best resource is the Internet.

However, aside from handcoding, which entails more effort, there are also ways on creating your website without the tedious work of writing codes, but with the use of WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) programs such as FrontPage, PageMill, Dreamweaver, GoLive, PHP and Wordpress, among others. As the name suggests, WYSIWYG programs will enable you to build up your own website with less intricacies and more desirable output (primarily because you can save time by just choosing from the options laid before you against creating your own options in handcoding). So far, more people are using these programs for their own benefit, but many people still prefer to write codes. I, for one, would still prefer to use notepad than any of those programs I’ve mentioned in building my future websites.

With the training I’ve undergone in handcoding, I learned that web authoring is not simply laying out of what you’ve got just because you want to. As I’ve mentioned, there are principles behind handcoding. The proper nesting of tags and attributes, the proper layout, and the relationship of form and content tell you that web authoring is a responsibility. Once you upload your webpage (an HTML document) or website (a collection of webpages linked together), you made yourself accountable of what you have just uploaded.

The same goes with journalism. The principles of the profession say more of your responsibility than your desire to make money. Proper nesting of tags and attributes in handcoding, for instance, is equivalent to getting and delivering accurate information in journalism. However, since we are talking about a medium no less than the internet, handcoding is more applicable to relate with online journalism.

Online journalism and web authoring are both dependent of the technology of Internet. The purpose of wanting to reach a large audience fast-paced and real-time is the reason why they exist. Besides, in this modern age, we rely heavily on information technology. Internet savviness is more required rather than preferred.

But the point thereof is how to make use of the available technology responsibly. Web authoring requires talent, but web authoring through handcoding demands perseverance and efficiency. I’m not saying web-authoring programs do not require perseverance and efficiency too. But think this way: if you are efficient in tearing, what more in cutting? You may not tear again because you already have a pair of scissors, but you will never throw what you’ve mastered in tearing and will apply it together with the tool that you have so as to create a better output—something that you can boast of with pride. #

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University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City 1101

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Between the Lines is a product of a semestral study on Online Journalism (Journalism 117). This website is created through HTML handcoding using Notepad. This is also the webmaster's debut website.

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