Web design has changed quite a bit since the world wide web began. In the beginning, at least the beginning of web design, websites were created mostly with code. This is the way many of us got our start.

Soon after, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors became available. The problem with many of these is they “messed up” the code; so while these editors were preferred by newcomers without coding experience, they were rejected by many of us in the web development world. Sure, we used them from time to time, but they ended up costing more time in fixing than coding by hand would take. These editors were a “middleman” between the developer and the finished website.

Also, once a website was created, there were several other things to take into account. For example, things like a “guestbook”, “contact form,” etc. These are not only a scripted page, but also were often backend cgi programming.

Without getting too technical, to create a website with forms, scripts, animated menus, databases, password protected sections, shopping carts, was much more complicated than a basic website. Web developers would have to either find a programmer to help with the website, or would have to learn additional programming language.

Now, this process has been streamlined due to CMS (content management systems). Content Management Systems (what this website is based on - using Joomla) are websites that integrate with other scripts, such as logins, a database, shopping carts, etc. So it streamlines the process. We still find ourselves editing code, and doing much of what was done in the beginning, but with the added benefit of saving time and money in having to learn additional programming languages.