Comments on "About Xara Web Designer"

[covoxer]

Ok, reading once again Stan's comments I guess I finally grasped where the confusion coming from.
Stan, the thesis' that you quote form the Xara marketing materials are not exclusive as you interpret them. Let me explain on examples.
“Creating websites should be like creating PDF files - you should not need to know anything about what happens ‘under the hood‘”This means that there must be a way to create web sites the way we create PDF. This doesn't mean that this has to be the only way as you imply.

“it provides no HTML code view, and no abilities to program Javascript”This was said in context that it allows you to create sites without even needing code view and JS. You interpret it as code or JS are prohibited in WD, which is weird as you know well about all the snippets, placeholder capabilities and the willingness of Xara to make it flexible. Remember how header placeholders were added after WD release as a response to the users request? How does it fit your interpretation of this phrase?

One more thing, you disagree that: "“It’s evident that the vast majority of websites are of a graphical nature”". You can disagree of course, but the truth is that most pages on the web (by number, not visitors traffic) are amateurs pages. As you later clarify - "serious websites...". But think about it - are the "serious websites" majority of the web? I don't think you believe it.

So, Stan, you simply got a bit incorrectly the meaning of the article that you quote. It doesn't actually oppose most things you say.

PS I'm answering here instead of your blog due to several personal reasons.

[netsi]

Remember how header placeholders were added after WD release as a response to the users request? How does it fit your interpretation of this phrase?

Perfect! I commented in the hope to make this product even better, and as you correctly mentioned I probertly got some of the statements wrong

But think about it - are the "serious websites" majority of the web? I don't think you believe it.

Well, I have previously used Xara Extreme Pro for producing serious websites and am hoping to start using XWD to do things like muck-up of websites too - also for serious web-sites.

So, Stan, you simply got a bit incorrectly the meaning of the article that you quote. It doesn't actually oppose most things you say.

Thanks, maybe I should try to pratice my poor english so I do not repeat this...

[netsi]

Just got an idea: Why not make a new forum called something like:
Xara Web Designer - "under the hood"

A forum where the technical (HTML/CSS/Javascript and other web-technical elements) can be discussed. For instance:

1. How do we make the output from XWD more jQuery (and other javascript API) friendly?
2. Avoiding inline style and using CSS classes.. what would be perfect?
3. Adding a standard which will allow for easy integration with web based content in websites generated by XWD. In a manner simular to the plug-in of Xara Extreme Pro.

Such issues which are focused on the "other" part of any website: The "under the hood" part, and not the design/layout part.

What do you think?

[remi]

Hi Sten,

I think John (covoxer) is on the way to develop such things.

See post #44 in this thread and John's answer:

It's not a fight against standards, it's management of development resources. Any feature that is useful and is not present is a potential feature to implement. But there are a lot of them, and development resources are limited. So the question here is not do it or not, but what to do first. That's all.

Regards,
Remi

[covoxer]

Just got an idea: Why not make a new forum called something like:
Xara Web Designer - "under the hood"

To make a separate forum it has to be populated enough. For the beginning you can create a thread and it will show if it's worth a separate forum.