Recently, I have had the experience of completing a site that a previous Web Developer had started (I will not be mentioning the site to protect the innocent ).  I always find this to be an interesting and sometimes painful experience.

THE BAD

For good, or bad, I am one of those Web Developers that has to start out with clean code.  This can take several hours, if not days to do so.  There are several advantages to taking the time to do this:

• Asists in Search Engine Optimization.  The cleaner the code, the easier (and quicker) search engines will have in determining the content of your site.
• Organization.  Having clean code is like having a tidy desk.  I have a difficult time focusing when my desk is cluttered.  Instead of having the ability to take a quick glance at a page and determine where the bugs are (which all Web Developers have had to do, and most likely spent several hours doing it), it can take up to several hours.

Once the initial page has been cleaned and sterilized, I can then start duplicating code to the other pages.

THE GOOD

What I do enjoy about this type of situation is that I get to see the approach that another Web Developer took to tackle the same project.  Often there are items that I would not have thought of or a direction was taken that I would have considered differently.  Occasionally new techniques are learned and noted for future use.

The result is that I’ve had a wonderful learning experience, but will be very grateful when the project is completed.  Starting out with a fresh canvas is always more enjoyable that starting out with a cluttered one.

I have recently discovered an article written by Sjim Wagemakers Webdesign titled “How To Help Kill IE6″, located at http://blog.sjimwagemakers.nl/webdesign/how-to-help-kill-ie6IE6 has been a thorn in my side for most of the site’s I have created.  I’d get the site looking perfect in IE8, Firefox, Safari and then (using another computer), I’d check it in IE6 and everything would be all awry.  I loved running across this article and learning that I am not the only developer that has run across this problem.  The current Browser Statistics for October 2009 are:

• Firefox – 47.5%
• IE7 – 14.1%
• IE8 – 12.8%
• IE6 – 10.6%
• Chrome – 8.0%
• Safari – 3.8%
• Opera – 2.3%

Firefox is leading the pack, but IE6 is till 4th in the running… just amazing.  At least it is loosing popularity instead of gaining and soon should be out of the running altogether.