[awebapart]

We try to avoid, or minimise, coding by hand where possible, as coding by hand introduces the element of human error, and requires more testing. To this end, we have created reusable tools and a reusable platform which minimise, or remove the need for, the coding required when setting up a new website. The tools and the platform we have created are coded by hand (but again use software engineering principles where possible to achieve code reuse and minimise coding), and have either been created from scratch (as in our sitebuilder and content management system), or are custom coded versions of existing systems (as in our custom version of osCommerce, which delivers the online shop section of our websites).

Since we have the one underlying reusable platform, any coding we do to improve this platform, means that we are also improving all of our sitebuilder client websites based on this platform.

With our approach, there are still times where some coding by hand is necessary, but this is usually limited to creating another custom web template to plug in to our sitebuilder platform. Coding by hand on an individual sitebuilder client website basis is limited to browser-side code (template design, HTML/CSS/Javascript, code within content), anything more serious like PHP/MySQL coding we don't do on an individual sitebuilder client website basis as this is deemed underlying platform development (which has to be evaluated on a general sitebuilder service-wide basis).