Hiding Html codes and Search Engines

[NewDesigner]

If this topic has been mentioned before, I apologize fore reposting this question. For some reason my connection is real slow and it was taking too long to search.

I was wondering what is the opinion on hiding html codes from those that visit your site? I also wanted to know if I were to implement a script so no one can view my coding, if it would affect the search engines to spider my site?

Thanks.

[encyclo]

There is no way of hiding your HTML markup or other similar files. That's how the web works - user agents need the markup to display the page.

There are a few disreputable companies selling "solutions" which obfuscate the markup, but they can all without exception be "defeated" in less than 5 minutes by anyone with half a clue about web design, and they have absolutely disastrous consequences on search engine indexing.

When you look at it logically, there is actually nothing to hide - it is trivial to recreate the look of a page even without the markup. The only valuable part of a site is the backend management (eg. CMS and database) - and those are well-protected anyway.

[NewDesigner]

Thanks so much for your input. I am learning a lot by coming to this site. :)