Re: Validation Issues....

[snip]
> My point is .........Who gives a damn !
> If it works on the number and types of browsers you want it to work on
then
> that's it, you have achieved what you set out to achieve.
[snip]

Actually, I imagine quite a few people that give a damn.  For starters, how
about the HWG that you're a member of (their site is written to valid HTML),
or a portion of the members on this list (I know I do), or the W3C itself.

I have noticed a disturbing trend on this list.  I have noticed a great deal
of table problems lately where it doesn't work in NN but IE or sometimes the
other way around.  The validation tool has also seem to come under fire a
bit too.  And now this.

If you indulge me for a moment, I'll try to see if I can offer a different
perspective.  While designing for your target audience is definately a smart
and prudent philosiphy, it is only a starting point in a much larger
picture.  Some of us have no idea who will be accessing our sites because
they are meant to be seen by the general public.  The general public uses
more than just NN and IE, some use WebTV, others, text only browsers, while
the blind use braille readers and voice browsers.  I would like to be able
to reach those people too.  These are accessability issues and HWG has
devoted huge amounts of time and commitment to these concerns.  The very
near future is bringing even more diversity in who and what will be viewing
your site.  For instance, cell phones with internet access are already
begining to appear everywhere and 'Web Pads' are going to be debuting soon
if they haven't already.  Not using 'valid' HTML, XHTML, or XML is the
quickest way to look for trouble in this brave new world.  The days of
designing for the two major browsers are just about over.  If you continue
to design with proprietary tags, I wish you luck, as you will have major
headaches with the new access mediums.  Good design and valid HTML will not
only give you less problems today, but position you to transition more
quickly and easily to new technologies and mediums that are emerging.  This
is not by accident, the W3C has done their homework and created these
standards as they stand for very good reasons.  They have legions of people
from the industry, YOUR peers, working together on the best solutions
possible.  I know I don't have the time, energy, or expertise to find the
answers.  Why reinvent the wheel?  Why wouldn't  you take advantage of this?

As far as the validation tool....  As with everything new, it takes time to
master.  But I promise you, it does work and if you learn to use it and are
able to interpret its results, it will become your best friend.  All those
errors will become much less mysterious and frustrating.

On the subject of tables.  Tables can be tricky sometimes even for the
experienced webdesigner, in part because of the incompatibilities that do
exist between NN and IE .  For these reasons, tables can be a great source
of frustration for new designers.  However, don't let this be a temptation
to throw good design out the window.  If you stick to coding with honest to
goodness valid HTML, problems and differences are greatly minimized from the
onset.  There are even some instances where problems that do show up can
still be corrected by adding or rearranging code that normally wouldn't be
neccesary and still be valid.  Don't some of you find it the slightest bit
ironic or strange that we complain about how NN is a pain in the you know
what about because it doesn't handle the latest HTML or CSS as well as IE,
yet all the while using proprietary IE table tags?  I'm not saying that by
not using the IE tags all your troubles will go away, they won't.  What I'm
saying is that by using proprietary IE tags, we are perpetuating the very
problems we loathe today!  We are shooting ourselves in the foot with
ammunition we are supplying to continue the browser wars and whatever wars
will come our way because of such behavior.

Validating means you are coding to a standard.  Coding to a standard means
you helping to build a tomorrow that will be free from all the
incompatabilities that make it impossible at times for us, the designers.

Just my $1.50's worth,
Steve Antonio
santonio(at)delanet.com

HTML: hwg-basics mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA