John Archambault:
Digitalist
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| March 16, 2009 |
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| iWeb is iOpening | |||
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I recently read a review of Apple’s iWeb tool for web design, and was impressed by
how it enables users to create their own custom websites - websites that are as distinct and unique as the people who make them.
Still, if non-professional developers, working in the comfort of their own home, are to ever create the sort of e-commerce websites that today’s businesses often pay big money for, many improvements need to be made to iWeb-like software, especially regarding the need for "hackable" code and the necessity of terrific (and automated) database design. Coupling improvements in these areas with a simple, elegant interface will allow anyone to create the most sophisticated of websites. Because digital technology is a long, long way from understanding all the desires and intentions of the humans who use and create it, hacking code - I'll define the term as actually writing some of the website’s code oneself - is an essential part of nuanced web development. Sure, it's great that iWeb can save me a lot of time and energy by taking care of the mundane details of coding, but I need to be able to fine-tune a site to make it perfect. It’s really no different than what engineers do when they program microprocessors by fine-tuning the Assembly language that is created from C code. Truly, hacking is important to more than just expert programmers; many of my friends on CouchSurfing.com embed bits of html right in their profile, just as mySpace users create or download css files. In 2009, the average American high school student knows several basic html tags, and as time goes on, more and more Americans will have the ability (and desire) to make basic, simple changes to the elaborate websites that programs like iWeb can create. iWeb needs to be great at auto-generating code, but flexible enough to allow customized hacks. Work still needs to be done so that iWeb will make reliably effective databases, but given how many people are familiar with MicroSoft Access, it’s fair to say that relational databases are not a difficult concept to grasp for the average person; there must be a way for a software application to help a non-developer create a worthwhile (and accurate) database. A user should be able to tell a program like iWeb what sort of data needs to be managed, and the program should then create the appropriate tables. Most people will never need a complex database schema, but most people will need a program that understands how to make the schemas they need. There’s much to do before great web development comes to the masses, but I’m heartened by the progress that is being made . . . baby steps! |
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