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

Wed May 2 10:03:42 EDT 2007

Speaking as someone who's had a fair amount of experience in working with
someone else's code, standards compliance is a godsend.  If a site
validates, I at least know some thought has gone into 'standardizing' the
markup so that it's at least consistent.  This helps when, for example, you
are upgrading the site from HTML4 to XHTML.

The two most significant advances the standards movement has made has been
to emphasize the separation of content and layout, and eschewing tables for
layout.  Nothing makes me have a bad day more than seeing a 1px wide table
cell added for padding.

I've found that trolling some of the 'good' design blogs has given me a lot
to think about - maybe not always in terms of practical guidelines.
37signals' blog (http://www.37signals.com/svn) is always a good read.  I
also enjoy trolling through the blogs at 9rules design community:
http://9rules.com/design/

Andrew

On 5/2/07, Andrew Cunningham <andrewc at vicnet.net.au> wrote:
>
>
>
> I guess I more cynical.
>
> I work with multilingual content, and
> when you mix standards compliance and accessibility with multilingual
> content many web developers and most CMS products fail to get it right.
>
>
> Those parts of the standards that are well understood are
> implemented well. But its common for internationalization features not to
> meet best practice.
>
> Mixing multilingual ocntant and
> accessibility is even more fun. I can think of a few sites aiming for
> "AA" or "AAA" that fail to meet some "A"
> checkpoints because they haven't internationalized the site properly, or
> fail to understand that the inteded audience of the content should match
> the intended audience of implemented accessibility techniques.
>
> I haven't seen many library or government sites that get it right.
>
> Andj.
>
> On Wed, May 2, 2007 5:52 pm, David Kane wrote:
> > Hi Andrew, you make the point well.
> >
> > There has
> been a lot of interest in web content management systems for
> >
> libraries recently.  In our experience the use of a CMS makes us more
> > able to create a semantic, accessible, standards compliant page.  I
> have
> > a paper coming out in June's 'Library Hi-Tech', which is a
> case study of
> > what we did with our library website and it makes
> this point.
> >
> > Offprint available on request.
> >
>
> > David.
> >
> > David Kane
> > Waterford
> Institute of Technology
> > http://library.wit.ie/
> > T:
> ++353.51302838
> > M: ++353.876693212
> >>>> Andrew R
> Stevens <asteven4 at gmu.edu> 05/02/07 1:08 AM >>>
> >
> David Kane wrote:
> >> Hi Andrew, Tim, All,
> >>
> >> I think that web standards can have a normative force insofar
> as a
> >> standards-compliant website whose markup reflects the
> semantics of the
> >> content will lend itself very readily (in
> my experience) to compliance
> >> with WAI and Section 508
> guidelines.
> >>
> >
> > Yes, it that is a very
> compelling argument in favor paying attention to
> > web standards.
> In fact, it's difficult to create a highly accessible
> > site with
> an ambivalent view of standards.
> >
> > A wrote a brief
> piece on this subject for a workshop a couple years ago:
> >
> > Accessibility benefits of "standards-based design" and
> "structural
> > markup"
> >
> <http://www.4serendipity.com/accessibility/struct/>
> >
> >>
> >> Another possible justification for standards
> compliance is that the
> >> separation of style from the content
> typically creates a smaller file
> >> size.  Some people also say
> that a semantically structured document
> >> lends itself more
> readily to search indexing.  This sounds good, so
> > you
> >> can say it to your boss if you like, but I am unaware of any
> evidence
> > to
> >> support it.
> >
> > This
> another valuable beneficial outcome of using standard markup. A
> >
> related benefit is the ease with which standard markup is maintained.
> > Marking up pages best suited to quirky user agents leads to a
> quirky
> > product that will require future maintainers to
> unnecessarily
> > familiarize themselves with the quirks.
> >
>
> > Another benefit of web standards, and standards in general, is
> that they
> >
> > provide the developers of access devices
> with an established format to
> > which to design their devices for.
> The alternative is to either mimic
> > another device's bugs or to
> create a new, unique interpretation of web
> > languages that may or
> may not to compatible with other access devices.
> > Either of the
> these alternative approaches leads to a "wild west"
> >
> scenario where one could never be sure of that the current, ad hoc
> > authoritative implementation will still be dominant next year or
> next
> > month.
> >
> > A couple oldie, but still good
> reads on this topic are:
> >
> > Site Valet - Why
> Validate?
> > <http://valet.htmlhelp.com/page/why.html>
> >
> > 4 Reasons to Validate your HTML
> >
> <http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/reasons.html>
> >
> >
> > For additional reading pleasure attached below are a few
> links related
> > to a presentation that I've given regarding web
> standards.
> >
> > *General Reading on Web Standards
> >
> > Zeldman, J. (2003). Designing With Web Standards.
> Indianapolis: New
> > Riders.
> >
> > Cederholm, D.
> (2004). Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style
> > Handbook.
> Berkeley, CA: Friends of ED.
> >
> > SimpleBits | Web
> Standards Link Bonanza
> >
> http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2004/06/21/bonanza.html
> >
> > What Every Web Site Owner Should Know About Standards: A Web
> Standards
> > Primer
> > http://www.maccaws.org/kit/primer/
> >
> > The Way Forward with Web Standards
> >
> http://www.maccaws.org/kit/way-forward/
> >
> > Design by
> Fire: The real reason you should care about web standards
> >
> http://www.designbyfire.com/000099.html
> >
> > mezzoblue: A
> Roadmap to Standards
> >
> http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2004/04/30/a_roadmap_to/
> >
> > mezzoblue: Standards Resources for Beginners
> >
> http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2004/08/25/standards_re/
> >
> > 99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete
> > An excerpt from Forward
> Compatibility: Designing & Building With
> > Standards
> >
> http://www.digital-web.com/features/feature_2002-09.shtml
> >
> > Accessibility benefits of "standards-based design" and
> "structural
> > markup"
> >
> http://www.4serendipity.com/accessibility/struct/
> >
> >
> *Bugs, Quirks, and Issues
> >
> > 4 Reasons to Validate your
> HTML
> > http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/reasons.html
> >
> > Toward a standard font size interval system
> >
> http://style.cleverchimp.com/font_size_intervals/altintervals.html
> >
> > Owen Brigss' CSS text sizing page
> >
> http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/font/index.html
> > An overview of various CSS text sizing methods. Includes a nice
> > selection of screenshots of each method in various browsers.
> >
> > Images, Tables, and Mysterious Gaps
> >
> http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Images,_Tables,_and_Mysterious_Gaps
> > Explains how Gecko (Netscape 6+, Mozilla, etc.) renders images in
> tables
> >
> > when "standards" mode is
> triggered.
> >
> > *Doctype Switch and Browser Rendering
> Modes
> >
> > Summary of Doctypes and the layout modes they
> trigger
> > http://www.hut.fi/u/hsivonen/doctype.html
> >
> > The Opera 7 DOCTYPE Switches
> >
> http://www.opera.com/docs/specs/doctype/
> >
> > CSS
> Enhancements in Internet Explorer 6
> >
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnie60/html/cssenhancements.asp
> > Details which Doctype triggers which rendering mode in IE 6 and
> lists
> > some of the differences between the "standards"
> and "quirks" mode in
> > this browser.
> >
> > Mozilla's Quirks Mode
> >
> http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/quirks/
> > Mozilla also
> provides a detailed outline of Mozilla quirks mode
> > behavior.
> >
> > Gecko's "Almost Standards" Mode
> >
> http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Gecko's_%22Almost_Standards%22_Mode
> >
> > Gecko Compatibility Handbook
> >
> http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Gecko_Compatibility_Handbook
> > Discusses Gecko (Netscape 6+, Mozilla, etc.) standards support
> and
> > solutions to common issues with this rendering engine.
> >
> > *'Hiding' CSS links
> >
> > Centrical's CSS
> filters page
> > http://centricle.com/ref/css/filters/
> >
> > Dithered.com CSS filters page
> >
> http://www.dithered.com/css_filters/
> >
> > Hiding CSS with
> @import
> >
> http://w3development.de/css/hide_css_from_browsers/import/
> >
> > CSS Wiki - CSS Hacks
> >
> http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=CssHacks
> >
> > The Box
> Model Hack
> > http://tantek.com/CSS/Examples/boxmodelhack.html
> >
> > Size Matters
> > An article detailing an
> implementation of the BMH to control font size
> > across
> browsers.
> > http://www.alistapart.com/stories/sizematters/
> >
> > Internet Explorer conditional comments
> >
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/ccomment_ovw.asp
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
> --
> Andrew Cunningham
> Research and Development Coordinator
> Vicnet
> State Library of Victoria
> Australia
>
> andrewc at vicnet.net.au
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