writing code

xirokx

xirokx

xirokx

Soldato
Joined
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N.W London
Hi peeps,

do you guys / girls write your own code from scratch or do you find it online and then edit it as per your requirements?

also when designing a site, header, footer etc, do you follow a tutorial and then adapt it to your liking or do you do it from scratch?

just wondering how the experts approach their "designing" and "coding" of a brand new site...

thanks in advance..

cheers
 
I write all of my code from scratch. That way I know exactly what is going on and can keep it as tidy as possible.

There is nothing wrong with adapting code from a tutorial but it can cause problems down the road if you don't fully understand the code you are changing.
 
Write my own from scratch. As tsinc said though, I have a few prebuilt templates (mainly for PHP) which I adapt according to what I'm doing.

Just saves time, but the point made by Sirius is the exact same reason I write all my code from the ground up.

Jon
 
xirokx said:
just wondering how the experts approach their "designing" and "coding" of a brand new site...
Click to expand...

There's always an attitude of "Not Invented Here" when it comes to programming, so much so that a lot of developers will be horrified to suggest using 3rd party tools.

However, if you're in a business you have to look at things pro-actively, you have to meet customer demands and you need to ensure delivery as quickly as possible.

The experts in software development will ask simply several key questions:

Development costs (how much it's gonna cost to make it)
Post-Development costs (how much it's gonna cost to debug and support it)
Support costs (how much it's gonna cost to support it as a total)
Risk costs (how much of a gamble it is for your or 3rd party code to fail).

All those need to be answered before you can make a decision, but can be summed up with:

If there's something outthere that does a function you're after (a business process) then buy it rather than make it. If what you're going to do gives you the business edge then make it.

Don't worry about bugs in the 3rd party code or anything else like that as it's been tested 100's of times before you and FAR MORE than any code you'll produce.
 
eventually reality and time scales kick in.

why waste time creating code that somebody else has already created.

if im knocking some stuff up for myself not work then generally ill hand write as much as possible but when it comes to work speed and efficiency are of the essence. so if some working code is around im gonna use it.
 
SiriusB said:
I write all of my code from scratch. That way I know exactly what is going on and can keep it as tidy as possible.
Click to expand...
Snap. I think the only thing I don't write is part of the header, which I just copy from any other site I've done and adapt as the only things I need to change are the keywords, description and title.

I usually design by getting the content, navbar, footer, header sorted with a bit of lorem ipsum in and using their own stand out colours on there, and I design with about 3-5 other websites tabbed that I like ideas from and develop from there. :)
 
do you think its "cheating" or not right if you use code from another site i.e. perhaps a tutorial site or someone elses site?

in work or personal do you feel less creative if you use code already written by someone else? surely thats not right...

sure you may know how to edit it but is that the same as being "creative"??

just wondered really not pointing the figure would really like to know what ppl think...

and also I notice nobody is replying to the second part of my question with regards to:-
also when designing a site, header, footer etc, do you follow a tutorial and then adapt it to your liking or do you do it from scratch?
Click to expand...

to clarify I mean more about the design, colours, shapes, layout rather then coding here...its a two part questions i guess a) coding b) designing

thanks for your honest responses...
 
xirokx said:
do you think its "cheating" or not right if you use code from another site i.e. perhaps a tutorial site or someone elses site?
Click to expand...
If it's from someone else's site I'd kind of say that's breach of copyright, if you're taking it exact, which I don't see why you'd need to because it's for your own purpose. Taking inspiration and stealing is a bit different...

In response to the 2nd part of your question; I generally know how I want it to look, but use techniques, structure grids, colour theory and purpose from 3-5 other websites I have open but I make sure they aren't anywhere close to carbon copies.

I always say to people 'don't design blind', as this is a major fault, trends and fashions change on the web, inspiration is key but I'm not a fan of mark-up copying.
 
xirokx said:
to clarify I mean more about the design, colours, shapes, layout rather then coding here...its a two part questions i guess a) coding b) designing

thanks for your honest responses...
Click to expand...

Every single website on the Internet is one of only very few layouts. Basically a header, content then a footer. No matter how you make those different parts look, and no matter what content you put in, you still have the same layout. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a similar layout as someone else, as I can guarantee there are 10 thousand other sites with the same layout!

What sets websites apart is their colours and use of images in the CSS. When creating a website it is usually encouraged that you look at the competition. See how someone else created a website, how successful it is and so on. You can then go away and create your website with ideas that you know should work. That is not to say you copy a website, as that's not on. However borrowing ideas is fine. As Random Tom says, he looks at 4 or 5 websites for inspiration and comes up with a whole new design.
 
so are you saying if I were to use code from similar style layouts I want for a new site BUT modify the colours and and some other things perhaps the menu style etc I should beat myself up about having "stolen" "cheated" by using next mans code?

i can see what you are saying about it saves time to do it aslong as you are not copying word for word and so making it original / unique to your idea...

what about the gfx part? would you say its "not right" "stealing" "cheating" to use a tutorial for the gfx in the header , bg, footer and main body or again as long as its differs I should also not beat myself up about this?

thanks for all comments so far...keep em coming

cheers!!
 
Both. Don't have time to reinvent the wheel, but there are always times when new code is needed; else there wouldn't be a market for programmers in the first place.
 
I'm starting to lose what you're on about.

Straight taking HTML/CSS from a similar live website = stolen
Straight taking HTML/CSS from a tutorial of a layout = fine, but a bit lazy

Taking HTML/CSS from a similar live website but renaming things = bit lazy

Finding your own answer to the situation when having a quick gander what they've done = all good.

Using tutorials for header graphics = bit lazy if it looks exactly the same, but can work well, and I don't see why that's not effective if you change it around and make it your own.

Be Creative.
 
Make all your websites yourself... don't use other peoples code.

Write it all from scratch. If I didn't do that pretty much each time, then my skills wouldn't have improved much at all and I'd still be using shoddy old code... Or even worse, someone else's code, then I'd have no real understanding of how to do it for myself if I ever need to ;) :p
 
it's not about being creative. Personally, if I'm writing something for myself then i'll do it from scratch, because I enjoy it, but if I'm pressed for time at work, and people are breathing down my neck, then damn right I'll use someone else's code, as long as it's appropriately licenced
 
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