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Web Standards and YOU

posted under category: Standards on October 14, 2004 by Nathan

It dawned on me that designing and developing sites with web standards isn't usually a lack of desire to follow the standards, but a lack of knowing what these standards are, and how to properly implement them.

HTML is dead! XHTML has taken its place. The time to jump on the new bandwagon has come.

Why Upgrade?The simple facts are, standards-driven web sites are easier to maintain, save on bandwidth costs (and thus download faster), and are more compatable with emerging browsers (phones, etc.). Those equate directly to the bottom line.

What do I have to learn? If you write HTML, you should understand the XML basics, close all your unclosed <tag />'s, use lowercase tag and attribute names. After that, it's all about simplifying your markup and perfecting your CSS. Read some books, take a class, visit some web sites. Get involved and ask questions when you're lost.

I want to improve the quality of the internet experience by making the web a better place to surf. You can help! Start small if you want to, but do start on this path to web standards development.

Nathan is a software developer at The Boeing Company in Charleston, SC. He is essentially a big programming nerd. Really, you could say that makes him a nerd among nerds. Aside from making software for the web, he plays with tech toys and likes to think about programming's big picture while speaking at conferences and generally impressing people with massive nerdiness and straight-faced sarcastic humor. Nathan got his programming start writing batch files in DOS. It should go without saying, but these thought and opinions have nothing to do with Boeing in any way.
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