Web Standards
Out of context: Reply #20
- Started
- Last post
- 25 Responses
- djenders0
"Explain to me why someone shouldn't learn the right way to develop sites? Explain why standards are bad....without using the tired excuse that it doesn't work in all browsers. "
Well I don't see why people can't learn about standards or push for it but reality dictates what can actually happen. If you have an array of sites that get 30 million page views a month and 10% of your users are still using Netscape 4.7 you are going to have tons of problems. These people demand to see their daily news and they don't want to upgrade. Or worse yet they can't!
Yep can't! I found 3 things that inhibit the push for CSS, XML, and DOM driven layouts & content.
1. People. Yep - they are just used to surfing in their old browser. It's familiar to them and they don't want to change.
2. Firewalls. Some businesses do not allow users to upgrade their software. So knowing your client and users are important. Standards are great but if they can't use them and it impedes their path to useful information then they are not helping anyone!
3. Unfortunately we still live in a time where anyone can code HTML. So you may have a staff or boss that feels the need to make changes to content. (Think of an Editor at a newspaper). They want ful control. But they don't understand XSL or that crazy CSS layout. What happened to good ole tables????
I still think we should all be on the standards bandwagon, but until we can actually overcome legacy browsers it just won't be a reality.
I think we need a stepping stone. That would be XHTML and the seperation of content and design. If you can't sell standards now then at least get your content into a database so you can wrap any design around it in the future. And start preaching XHTML to your staffs so they understand coding practices now and can make the transition later.
Just some thoughts...
Dennis.