I started out using Blogger in 2002 and actually went back to hand-coded HTML a bit later. In a lot of ways using ‘old-skool HTML’ was a lot easier & quicker for me: writing text & design in one textfile instead of having to click on buttons or working online with slow software. — But after some time I began to miss the possibility to use comments & tags & categories… and that’s not so easily done ‘by hand’.

Btw: very nice blog :-)

And your question isn’t clear at all. Before blogging software, PHP was barely accessible for the average user. There was only hand-coding (manual) HTML to create static web pages, one HTML for every web page. No dynamically generated web pages. Many used WYSIWYG programs when those became available, which actually did more harm than good with their table-based, non-standarized code. Programs like HotDogPro, FrontPage, etc., started getting competition in the early 1990s as everyone wanted HTML publishing in every program they created. Word, WordPress, spreadsheet programs, presentation programs, email programs, even text editors were adding web publishing to their software. This created a huge rash of horrid web designs and non-standard code on web pages across the web that are still out there, ignored by SEO because they don’t meet basic web standards, and looking like bad desktop publishing flyers.

As I pointed out in the article above, the process of blogging has become easier. The real question is whether or not that ease has changed or improved blogging. Blogging is easier, but the content out there is rarely original and unique, mostly link lists, and recommendations on reading the few original and unique articles out there, or linking to blogs that link to blogs that link to other blogs, who link to the actual blog with the original content.

Good luck with your research.