A First Post: More Than Markup

So, I've decided I would jump on the Blog bandwagon. Now, what to put here as my first post? Hmm, well, I have a bit of interest in building websites, so how about something I wrote a long time ago: a response to some ignoramus programmer calling web developers "HTML monkeys" and throwing off the profession as "easy". I don't have the link to the original article anymore but, as I recall, it was something to the effect of web development consisting exclusively of writing markup (HTML) and perhaps a little JavaScript. Fairly irritated and annoyed, I was moved to respond.

Response as follows:


To those who would dismiss our profession as "easy", I would say you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is we really do. Sure, I'm an "HTML monkey", just as much as a physicist is an administrative assistant. There's a lot more to web development than markup languages, client-side scripting and graphic design software. This might come as a surprise to some but web developers are also programmers, DBAs, server admins, project managers, diplomats, crisis managers, counselors and the list goes on. Well, maybe the last three are a slight exaggeration but you get my point.

The act of authoring an HTML document and throwing in a bit of JavaScript spice may not be rocket science but that does not imply that web development is necessarily "easy". Even if HTML and JavaScript were the only tricks in our bag that does not make our job inherently easy. Besides, what legitimate purpose does it serve to trivialize another's profession anyway? If writing HTML is just a bunch of monkey business, then I say be thankful for the monkeys! We certainly wouldn't want to leave our precious Web in the hands of those brainy types, would we? ;)

Remember, fellow creators, pay no attention to those who tell you what you do is easy or unimportant. Such observations merit no validity by virtue of knowledge or experience, and thus, are nothing more than a product of ignorance.

Cheers!