building my first site ...

[sele8]

Hi all,

How can I tell what coding and software has been used to build a website?
Do I need software to find out?

Thank you
s

[amam]

i think you can use mirosoftfrontpage or sitespinner software it just matter of drag and drop and your done

[sele8]

Thanks but I think they are purely site builders?

What I mean is if I see I site online that I like,
is there a way to know what the coding or software is that built it.

s

[snecz]

Sometimes you can view source of the page and look at metatag "GENERATOR".
It can look like this:

<meta name="generator" content="WordPress 2.7" />

which means that the site was made in WP.

[sele8]

Ok thanks !
That's what I was looking for

[Black Max]

A lot of sites don't have that META tag. Doesn't mean someone did or didn't use a site creation program, just means that the tag isn't there. It's not a perfect way to find out, but it's the only way I know of to tell at all.

[RyanReese]

Often you can tell waht program the person used (but not always) by the indentation the code has, the capitalization of the tags, etc. Some will even have a comment saying that their site was made in XXX. Though some people (incuding myself) code in Notepad so there will be no hints. Most people don't use meta tags except to set a charset (I only use that one).

Basic point is there is no sure-fire way.

[kohoutek]

By and large, you cannot tell with which software any site was coded. Most sites are coded with text editors. You shouldn't be able to tell from looking at the code. If someone uses some weird WYSIWYG generator to produce code, you might recognize it, but 99% of the time, that code isn't up to scratch.

If you mean CMSes, however, then you might be able to recognize which CMS application was used by either looking at the META tag as already mentioned, or some other pointers within the source code, often within the head or footer area. Typo3 is a good example of a CMS where the developers wish that the CMS information is kept intact within the source code. Not everyone abides by that, but many times you'll find that information intact within the source.

And sometimes the URL schema also allows for some insight as to which CMS might have been used.

[Blake Tallos]

Ryan Reese, uses Dreamweaver LAWL'Z! Us proo roundd here use notepad.

[kohoutek]

Ryan Reese, uses Dreamweaver LAWL'Z! Us proo roundd here use notepad.

Dreamweaver, when used appropiately, can output perfectly good code like any other editor out there (ok, except Frontpage), unless you rely entirely on its WYSYWYG functionalities. There's nothing wrong with Dreamweaver, the tool. It just becomes an issue when you don't know the languages/markup you're constructing your site with. Not much different from having someone have whole essays translated from one language into another via some automatic language translating tool. The output is rubbish, which you can only detect if you actually speak the language. That's where the danger of Dreamweaver and other WYSIWYG tools lie; making a machine translate what it thinks you're trying to convey. Humans are smarter than a machine. Well, not always...but in this case they should.

[RyanReese]

Huh Blake? I use Notepad, I personally hate dreamweaver.

[Blake Tallos]

Haha, I know ryan. I was j-k. :-)