[Web4lib] Resources? -- Web Standards and Semantic Markup

[K.G. Schneider]

> There are no rules in web design. There is, rather, a bunch of people
> who believe that you should write code in a certain way, and the
> actual "industry" that has learned something from them, but was never
> fully persuaded.
> 
> The industry and most web developers didn't learn "rules first" then
> start deviating. They learned the way people did it, and were later
> told they were deviants.

Hmmm, pretty language, but it's a mistake to paint people sympathetic to
standards as pharisaical.  There's a very strong argument for learning web
standards for both the short and long view, at least if you're designing to
serve a broad audience and you also don't want your web pages to break when
the next great browser comes out. The "LGTM" (Looks Good To Me) method can
sneak around to bite you in the fanny. 

Also, to learn how to code, most people had to learn some rules first. Maybe
just what they needed to achieve a short-term design method, but it wasn't
quite like grinding your paint and standing in front of a canvas. The
question then becomes whether it is worth it to learn as much as possible
about current standards, and I say yes. For the same reason that learning
why a fragment sentence is bad makes it possible to write one. 

Finally, what can look like dashing outlier behavior--I'll code the way I
wanna!--can also be a way of capitulating to a specific platform. Standards
people may in the end be the most deviant of all. 

K.G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com