The importance of being ‘standards compliant’.
One of the most important aspects of web design here at Elmnet is the build of standards compliant sites. This means writing code in the standard as specified by the W3C Consortium. To do this we need to write a site in two parts. The first part is the content, and this content is usually drawn from a database and displayed in a page. The second part of the site is the design, and this is controlled from a separate style sheet. What we change in the stylesheet only affects the way that the site looks, not the content held within it. The content and design are kept apart and only come together when the viewer browses to the site.
There are two ways of looking at standards compliant web design. One is to not bother and just go ahead and write non standard code. This is fine today, but next year when the next generation of web browsers come out we shouldn’t then complain when our sites don’t work in them.
The more sensible option is to write code which conforms as closely as possible to the standard of the day. Modern standards compliant browsers will always support standards compliant code so in theory at least you have a site that will work as it should for years to come. It’s an investment in the future!
While we’re on the subject of standards compliant browsers, I haven’t even touched upon the subject of Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 and the horrendous web legacy they have left behind them. It will crop up soon though!
