Once upon a time, my college gives me a key that change my life style, the key that makes me write this article. The given key was a free account to surf the internet. It was on July 1997 when I surf through the internet, and my eyes saw about HTML. Then, as you can guessed, I learned to code simple HTML. I had nice days with HTML coding. I learned it, step by step, from morning until night; wow it was wonderful days I never forget. Learning how to make tables, frames, formatting text, putting image and map it, supply it with link, and many more. I still remember the day I missed my part time work as lecturer’s assistant just because I prefer to learn new HTML tags than do the work!

As time goes by, I used my new knowledge to build my first web site, I hosted on geocities, and one of the content is about HTML tutorial I made. Well, at that time, there is just so little person who knows HTML, and I’m the one. Day by day, I used my ability on building web site to make money. Well, does it sound nice?

Okay, that is the past, its about 5-6 years ago. Now we talk about the present. HTML coding is almost never done because so many web-authoring tools have created. Supplied with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) method, building web site is so simple, fast and gives sophisticated look. So many HTML hand coders upgrading their skill learning these tools, and so do I. I tried Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe GoLive, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Allair HomeSite, CoffeeCup HTML, etc.

But the problem goes. Every time I wanted to do something special, it wasn't flexible enough to produce the results I wanted. What it came down to was the fact I could hand code it faster than the learning curve required to make it happen with the tools. As work continued to come in, I found it was always true, hand coding required something I already had, a fluent knowledge of HTML. Learning a web-authoring tool took time and then seldom gave me the output I desired. Also, many web-authoring tools produce inefficiency HTML code. They produce so many useless tags. Makes the document size grow bigger. And of course, it will consume more bandwidth, time to download and render the page. My attitudes about WYSIWYG HTML editors were formed early and I have hand coded every site since then, primary to clean the inefficiency code.

I’m now work on government department, but unfortunately, my primary job is not web site building related. It is so far away. But as a freelance programmer, sometimes I get web-building job, all by hand coding. Need complicated nested various table forms? I can do that. Need various text decorations? Once more, I can do that. I am not saying that web-authoring tools are a bad thing; only that learning the language is faster and more flexible. A site built with any of the editors out there is instantly recognizable as such. Some are very sophisticated and do a nice job; however, a program that writes the code for you should never supplant the art and science of hand coding. In my opinion I have command of a skill. Through sweat and perseverance I learned how to write code. I believe it shows up on the monitor when a user visits the site I have built.

Besides, I feel so happy, so glad if I can finish my job by hand coding. It is not happen if I done with web-authoring tool. There is something in my heart that cannot be expressed with words. It is abstract. So, if you visit my web site, you know the answer why do I create my web site with notepad, or similar text editor. Yes, that’s why.

All you hand coders out there take heart. The trend towards more powerful web authoring tools and the sites they produce will likely continue. We have an edge though; our creativity can best be expressed through a firm grasp of the technologies we use and the human ways of implementing them. The machine (and software) is just a tool. It is human designers that bring the internet to life.

So, how about you? If you have opinions, ideas, critics or suggestions, let me know.