But we do! When we're trying to clean up a file so it isn't a memory hog. (.odt file of my latest story ~250 KB, when I saved it as a .doc ~1400 KB. Ridiculous.) HTML can be just as bad.
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. I think Orion (the husband) probably has a point that the current zeitgeist is oriented towards having an extra layer between the user and the HTML, and not really needing to know what's going on under the hood, so to speak. Even though the Internet is embedded in the fabric of modern life, it's not so necessary to know the nuts and bolts to use it as it was when we learned how. Sort of like, back in 1930, you had to know how a car worked in order to get the damn thing to run at all, whereas now that they're completely ubiquitous, most people just push the button to make it go and take it to a mechanic if it won't.
But having said that ... yes! Being able to hand-code HTML in comments, clean it up in documents, figure out where it's gone wrong when it fails to work ... I see so many people on LJ struggling with simple HTML failures in the rich-text editor (text the wrong color, pictures won't embed) that is no problem at all with a little HTML tag. I mean, it's great that people don't HAVE to learn it in order to use it, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that (I don't change my own oil, even though I know how), but the fact that the whole system is set up so that something as simple as generating a clean, streamlined HTML document is next to impossible ... that's just ridiculous.
Thank you for the link to Kompozer, though! It looks like they have a Mac version, and one thing I would absolutely LOVE to find is a good HTML editor. I am still writing the code for my website in a text editor, but I'm getting very tired of that.
I'm just starting to sketch in my BB. How's yours looking?
*looks shifty* Big Bang? What Big Bang? *facepalm*
... actually, the answer depends on which story I write. I have several barely-begun WiPs sitting around (mostly AUs of various types), any of which would probably make a perfectly serviceable BB since they're so short compared to what we used to have to do in SGA (I am fairly confident that I can crank out 10,000 words with my eyes shut ... now whether they'll be decent words is a different matter, I guess). So I really just have to pick one, or decide if I'm doing a basic casefic instead. And then, um, write it.
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MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. I think Orion (the husband) probably has a point that the current zeitgeist is oriented towards having an extra layer between the user and the HTML, and not really needing to know what's going on under the hood, so to speak. Even though the Internet is embedded in the fabric of modern life, it's not so necessary to know the nuts and bolts to use it as it was when we learned how. Sort of like, back in 1930, you had to know how a car worked in order to get the damn thing to run at all, whereas now that they're completely ubiquitous, most people just push the button to make it go and take it to a mechanic if it won't.
But having said that ... yes! Being able to hand-code HTML in comments, clean it up in documents, figure out where it's gone wrong when it fails to work ... I see so many people on LJ struggling with simple HTML failures in the rich-text editor (text the wrong color, pictures won't embed) that is no problem at all with a little HTML tag. I mean, it's great that people don't HAVE to learn it in order to use it, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that (I don't change my own oil, even though I know how), but the fact that the whole system is set up so that something as simple as generating a clean, streamlined HTML document is next to impossible ... that's just ridiculous.
Thank you for the link to Kompozer, though! It looks like they have a Mac version, and one thing I would absolutely LOVE to find is a good HTML editor. I am still writing the code for my website in a text editor, but I'm getting very tired of that.
I'm just starting to sketch in my BB. How's yours looking?
*looks shifty* Big Bang? What Big Bang? *facepalm*
... actually, the answer depends on which story I write. I have several barely-begun WiPs sitting around (mostly AUs of various types), any of which would probably make a perfectly serviceable BB since they're so short compared to what we used to have to do in SGA (I am fairly confident that I can crank out 10,000 words with my eyes shut ... now whether they'll be decent words is a different matter, I guess). So I really just have to pick one, or decide if I'm doing a basic casefic instead. And then, um, write it.