I bhave spent some time over the past few weeks working on some of my web projects. One of which is www.mapawproject.com . I spent some time validating the code of the site.
To do this I used the free online service located at validator.w3.org. Initially it found something in the order of 400 errors. I spent a few hours going through each error and fixing it, learning on my way the difference between XHTML 1.0 Strict and XHTML – Transitional, between XHTML and just HTML and many other things.
One of the main differences between what I had learnt in standard HTML compared with what I was learning about XHTML 1.0 is that most formatting is now to be done either with external CSS definitions or in the “style” attributes of various tags. Tags like < center > and < font >are now out and tags like < div > and < span >with style attributes containing formatting instructions will do the same things.
It takes a lot to keep up to date with these things. Kudos to all programmers out there who do.
The Transforming Egg
Are you saying you actually use and tags!?
SHAME ON YOU!
Geee mister! Your really old!
I use XHTML Strict for most of the sites that I create, and only use Transitional when I am trying to make old HTML based code conform to the new XHTML standards. I use both the W3C XHTML validator and the W3C CSS (3) validator (although the CSS validator is a little finicky and won’t accept any CSS browser hacks so I use it as a suggestion only). Many cross browser issues can be solved by simply ensuring that your markup conforms to the standards, although usually it’s still required to have a separate set of CSS rules for IE browsers (since people insist on using it for some reason). It’s a tough job to keep up with all the latest standards, but it’s a necessity in order to be competitive on the market and to ensure your pages work as they should across all devices.
And just as you master XHTML (or Web 2.0 in general), out comes HTML 5. Many websites will be utilizing the new technology to replace Flash and other similar plugins. The next generation of web (beyond Web 2.0) depends on this technology, and many sites (especially Google) are already making use of it. As usual Microsoft is running behind, as IE is yet to support the latest draft. But at least most other browsers are supporting the new draft standards so that we developers can start the learning process again.
The learning just never ends…
Well said Rob. What are some of your latest projects ?
XHTML is lovely. XHTML 2.0 will be vastly different and I really like the direction it’s taking. Now if IE will only dump “HasLayout”, get proper CSS 2 support and properly parse <?XML tags the world will be a better place.