[dba-Tech] Question(s) about web-site design and development

[Arthur Fuller]

As Homer Simpson once said, "There are no stupid questions, only stupid
people."

I confess I know next to nothing about either discipline mentioned in the
subject, but I've been wondering about the design of numerous sites
(ArsTechnica, NYRB, NYTimes, there's a long list) whose basic mode of
presentation is analogous to the design of a newspaper: top-of-the-fold
headline(s), a paragraph beneath each, and a link that takes you to the
rest of the story.

It's obvious they use a template of some sort. In some cases, the
story-boxes are always the same size, and in other cases the size varies.
Either way, I'm guessing there are tools to do this (WordPress seems
popular), but what's the actual process? Do you start off with an entire
article, snip the first paragraph and paste it into the Front Page? But
then how do you add the link at the bottom of the story lead? Or maybe it's
the other way around?

Given the rapidity of change in such sites, I have to imagine that various
tools are available with which to control the flow of a story from lead to
body. I can't believe that people have to do this by hand, but also can't
imagine how these tools might work.

(Not that it's relevant to my immediate question, other than to illustrate
my ignorance in many branches of computing, but I haven't the faintest clue
how the software behind LucasFilm etc. works: more specifically, how do
they make the images of Sigourney Weaver in Avatar?  I can't even imagine
how to use such software, let alone how to write it.)

-- 
Arthur