I don't know how many times I have been on a website, and looked at the source code, which is impossible to read. Why? There are no line breaks! Other times, when I code something very quickly, I don't take the time to be organized and unforseen problems occur, and are hard to fix because I can't locate areas in my codes. So recently, I have adopted a simple idea: the neater my codes are: the easier I can fix and edit it.

When you are coding, you should try to include a fair amount of spaces in your codes, etc. so that it is neat and easy to read. If your code is all jumbled up, etc. you run the risk of wasting time looking for hidden pieces of code. Now really, the main problem with this resides in HTML. Other languages require you to go to the next line for every command. So what is one method to preventing, un-organized HTML? Using a new line of code for each of your start and end tags. Observe:



Understand what I mean? By using a new line for your start and end tags, you reduce the amount of clutter. Also, here is a method for organizing <div> tags.



In the above example, the two <div> tags are inside of a wrapper. So, we can show this by indenting the div tags so they become easier to read. Also, inbetween each section I included an extra line to help organize my codes.

Finally, I will cover inserting comments. Comments are another way to help organize your codes, especially when you include extra spacing inbetween tags, lines, etc.



If you have any other methods you like to use for organizing your codes, then please post them here. And remember, your codes become much easier to edit, etc. the more you organize them.

I hope this helped.

 

 

 

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Well sometimes the code is well written but when the navigator download it's source linbreaks disappears and it become impossible to read , that happened with me
Any way it is really important to be organized when coding , because as you said , sometimes we can't understand what we made by our selves

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The goal of a website is not to have the source code easy to read. The goal is to be useful, and the more spaces and linebreaks you have the longer it will take for that particular page to load. I might be the wrong person to reply to this topic because I hate comments. Whenever I code something even if I don't look at it for a year I still know where every part is because I know the way I code. If I make something for somebody else then yes, I will include comments and spaces, otherwise no.

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I completely agree with coding for easy reading, I know you may not want other people reading your code; however, it's extremely hard to fix dirty code. One thing I like to do is compartmentalize my code, such as for a site with a site wide theme, i'll make a seperate file with all the theme data and layout design that doesn't change often and then use a php include statement on my content pages and all I need to enter on my content pages is the content and there is no need to change any layout stuff for each page. If I decide to change the layout, I change one file, not ten, such as recently when I added a new page and need to put a new link in my link bar, changed a couple lines in one file and the whole website adjusted, very easy from there.

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I use the same technique. I find it works nice... in general: your codes should be super nice and organized, but so should your files. That is one thing I hate about using exculsively HTML: if you have 100 pages, and you need to change one link in your navigation... time to suck back on the workahol...

 

 

 

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