Writing HTML is not coding (idea)

I agree with the sentiments, I really do. For the last ten years I've earned a living by hacking code software engineering for a variety of small and not-so-small companies around Britain. So I can understand the frustration when someone picks up a copy of "Dummy's Guide to Creating Your First Web Page" and calls themselves a coder.

But your example given was the most basic possible web page. To compare you'd have to use a Hello, World! program:

PRINT "Hello, World!"

Doesn't require a great deal more skill than a basic web page really...

OK, let's assume we're talking real programming:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{ printf("Hello, World!\n");
return 0; }

Nope, still doesn't look much more complicated than a Hello World webpage would be.

Now admittedly there's a million miles between Hello World and a real, worthwhile program. But that's a truism that works for web sites as well: view the source of some of the more interesting and imaginative sites around today: even those that are static have got some serious time and effort put into them (and I don't mean 30 minutes work with FrontPage either!)