Just Use Html: Why MVC Can Be A Good Thing

Just a fair warning, this isn’t intended on being taken as truth, but if you’ve been here before you should already know that.  If you haven’t and you can’t figure that out from the url alone, you’re probably are confused by addition so oh well.

So something has come up in days of yore, and it involves HTML.  Now I understand that those four simple letters are enough to give most programmers a rash unseen since being a kid of wearing Wranglers without washing them first.  Seems to me that there is an utter fear of HTML in the programming field and I can understand.  Sure there were times a log time ago when it was simple and people didn’t have to put up with this CSS thing.  Then design got complicated with that now defunct term DHTML.  All of a sudden, HTML design became a tool of the lesser and programmers wanted nothing to do with it.  To complicate matters, things like ASP.Net Webforms made it even more painful to worry about design. and really has so many ways to ignore it because of the 8 million automatic controls.   End result:  The ability to work with and create worthwhile pages became a lost art.

Flash forward to MVC.  To me one of the greatest things about the MVC framework was that it forced me to once again become one with HTML, and to the same extent CSS.  I’ll admit it was painful at first.  I had been able to get away without really having a good understanding of either for so long thanks to WebForms, but no way would this last.  Eventually I started to get pretty comfortable with it and have to admit I’m a far better programmer overall because of it.  How did I pull this off?  97% of the time I don’t use HTML.Helpers and other HTML churning methods.

Now I get that it sounds alien to most people.  After all, things like HTML.EditorFOr coupled with annotations can help with quickly creating pages.  I won’t argue that.  In fact, from a programmer’s stand point it’s probably better and I’m just a minority.  But I’m ok with that.  Why?  Because I like HTML.  I like CSS.  I like seeing both when I open a page in Visual Studios.  What I don’t like is the abomination that HTML helpers and the like create.  I didn’t go to MVC just so I could have even less HTML than I did in WebForms.  In fact, if I didn’t like HTML so much I would have just stayed with WebForms.  When it comes to quick development, WebForms wins hands down.  The switch to MVC wasn’t about speed, it was about doing it right for a change.  It was about getting my hands dirty and really learning web design and javascript.  It was about learning, not about taking the easy route once again. What have I gained from it? I can mock the s–t out of a page with notepad in the time it takes a kid to go through bubble wrap. Yeah, that fast.

I might get blasted for this, but personally a lot “MVC Magic” is just a way for people who are afraid of HTML to feel more comfortable.  That something like:

<% HTML.BeginForm(...) %>

Feels more safe than:

<form id="....  >

And why wouldn’t it? WebForms allowed a much more programmer friendly approach to creating pages, so it makes sense that something like the first example would be championed by programmers. Problem is, it just keeps feeding the issue: programmers don’t know jack about designing web sites.

There is nothing wrong with HTML and CSS. It’s not a difficult concept. Instead of using tools to get around dealing with them, embrace them. Don’t take the easy way out. Don’t get scared and run. Just use them. In fact, here’s an exercise:

Come up with a simple site idea like say a forum and build it completely in HTML, CSS, and Javascript (jQuery, Mootools, ect are still javascript). 100% mock up. If you find that hard or annoying, stuff it and keep going. I swear that the benefits will be astounding.

I’ll give plus points if the page has a possibility to make a lot of money… no reason for that at all…