The Importance of Standards

Ever since I started building my own sites in Dreamweaver - and this does not include FreddyWare@School, which was powered by Joomla! and did not use an XHTML template - I have been deeply concerned with web standards and compliance with XHTML 1.0 Transitional. Geekie.org, for example, uses a great “Vistered Little” theme that IS standards compliant - even after a few modifications by me.

To check, click here to go to the W3C Validator and validate the source code for Geekie.org. (Note that here I use URL encoded values for the location of Geekie.org - an XHTML issue.)

It is my firm belief that the XHTML standards set by the W3C are quite useful in guiding developers in targeting their output to various audiences. (Sure, the application/xhtml+xml MIME type is an exception, but that can be blamed on IE.) They help to ensure simple loading of pages on different platforms, on different browsers, while maintaining a similar visual representation.

On a side note, why isn’t IE standards compliant? Why not switch to Firefox? If you haven’t dones so already,
!

Now, back to the topic at hand: standards. I don’t actually use XHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.1 in my sites, for obvious compatibility reasons, and also for the ease of coding without constantly generating errors due to habits. And I don’t usually use the application/xhtml+xml MIME type - because of Internet Explorer.

If it weren’t for the fact that it’s installed on nearly every Windows computer, I wouldn’t mind my pages showing up as downloads for IE users. I don’t think much of accomplished computer users on IE anyways. (Don’t get me started about Microsoft Paint…)

I am somewhat interested in the drafting of XHTML 2, however, since some rumours about it include nested <h> tags rather than specific <h1>, <h2>, <hx>… and the possibility of using href=”" on nearly any tag.

It is important to comply with standards such as those of the W3C because programmers don’t always know what kind of audience they have; IE users, Firefox users, Mac users, Linux users, or - heaven forbid - Sun Solaris users. Coding with the standards in mind will ensure that you get your design across, regardless of what platform a user is on. (…hopefully not Windows…)

Keep in mind, however, that if nearly none of your users use IE, I still wouldn’t recommend the application/xhtml+xml MIME type because it creates problems with older JavaScript code; document.write is a huge issue, one that affects even Google AdSense.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Apogee Search Marketing »« The Original Star Trek