A Preview of HTML 5

HTML 4 has been around for nearly a decade now, and publishers seeking new techniques to provide enhanced functionality are being held back by the constraints of the language and browsers.

Hunt, Lachlan. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Put XHTML 1.0 Strict and Transitional to Work  

As its name suggests, XHTML--which is considered the successor to HTML 4--is a combination of HTML and XML. By combining the power of XML and HTML, XHTML makes Web content more accessible to devices such as phones, handhelds, and televisions. XHTML 1.0 is broken up into what the W3C refers to as three flavors: Strict, Transitional, and Frameset. In this article, I focus on the two most useful, Strict and Transitional.

Morton, Shawn. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Reliable HTTP: A New Protocol

HTTPR aims to ensure that a Web transmission gets delivered to its destination only once, or gets reported as undeliverable. HTTPR is geared toward business-to-business communications over the Web, such as paying a bill or processing a purchase order, where a request must be delivered once and only once to its intended receiver.

HyperWrite (2004). Articles>Web Design>Standards

Same DOM Errors, Different Browser Interpretations

Have you ever looked at how the different browsers handle the same DOM errors? As this article from Opera JS guru Hallvord R. M. Steen points out, their different interpretations can be surprising.

Steen, Hallvord R.M. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Web Browsers

The Standards Way to Do Dynamic Data

Somewhere in between presenting static information graphics and complex, interactive data dashboards there’s a need for a way to visualize moderately dynamic data on the web. Oftentimes the solutions you see implemented are clunky, for example, manually creating multiple frames of various data points and uploading them by hand.

Madden, Sean. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Interaction Design

The Trouble with Web Standards

You may mistrust web standards because of bad experiences with buggy browsers. Or you might have converted a site from HTML to XHTML, only to discover that their layouts suddenly looked different in standards-compliant browsers. Don't give in to the dark side! Web standards are here to stay.

Zeldman, Jeffrey. Creative Pro (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

They Shoot Browsers, Don't They?

Standards-aware developers, by their very nature, will object to adding a line of unnecessary markup to their documents just to get one single browser to behave as it should by default.

Keith, Jeremy. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Web Browsers

Toward a More Standards-Compliant Internet Explorer

Reveals a major flaw in Internet Explorer when dealing with floats. If you are serious about moving from a table layout to a CSS layout, you must read this article first.

Gallant, John P. Digital Web Magazine (2003). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Web Browsers

Version Targeting: Threat or Menace?

Real DOM support is a game changer. Enabled by default, it would bring many sites to their knees. That would break the web, and not in quotes. Providing IE8's greater compliance on an opt-in basis is the only way to get everyone over the scripting hump.

Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Web Browsers

WCAG 2.0 Preview: So What's New?

This article reviews the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 and was published in SPIN Magazine. The article summaries the new guidelines and identifies key revisions and changes made to the original WCAG version 1.0.

Palmer, Mark. User Vision (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Web Clients Fatten Up with OpenLaszlo

OpenLaszlo is a rich client application architecture that uses Macromedia Flash as a deployment vehicle. Declarative in design, OpenLaszlo relies upon JavaScript for logic and offers advantages over traditional Flash development, including an advanced UI constraints system, an object-oriented design methodology, and built-in support for Web services and a variety of flavors of Remote Procedure Call (RPC). This article details the basic concepts of OpenLaszlo, and gives examples of situations in which an OpenLaszlo solution might be beneficial.

Woods, Joshua M. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Flash

Web Writing Guidelines Backed by Research

In the past, I have been bothered by the lack of a coherent summary of research on web writing. In November 2003 the problem was solved by the (US) National Cancer Institute, for the time being, at least.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Standards

When is a Long Document Not a Long Document?

Change is upon us, whether we like it or not. HTML is the default technology for accessible documents online according to the W3C and most government standards. That means goodbye to the easy solution of flinging scores of long documents on to a web site as Word or PDF files.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Standards

Who/Where are the Women?

Spawned by recent conversations with friends, I’ve been thinking about people who are known for designing and working with web standards. Specifically those who have a strong interest in CSS or are already using style sheets to compliment or construct beautiful design. In these conversations, we’ve noted that this space seems heavily dominated by men. This concerns me.

Stop Design (2003). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Gender

Why Gecko Matters: What Netscape’s Upcoming Browser Will Mean to the Web

Netscape is about to unleash its new browser, built around the Gecko rendering engine. Theoretically the first completely standards-compliant web browser, Gecko enters a world where most people use IE5 (which is not completely standards-compliant). Is Netscape’s effort too little, too late? Or is it the beginning of a new and better way to create websites? Zeldman articulates The Web Standards Project's position and explains what Netscape’s browser will mean to the web.

Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Web Browsers

Why Standards Still Matter

The last couple of years may have seen an increase in the level of interest and action around web standards. But it still isn’t filtering down to the mainstream.

Johansson, Roger. Vitamin (2006). Articles>Web Design>Standards

WSDL: Defining Web Services  

Introduces Web Services Description Language (WSDL), a type of document that defines the set of operations a Web service can perform.

Flaherty, Brian. Intercom (1995). Articles>Web Design>Standards

XHTML and the Escape Codes

But one of the lesser known differences between HTML and XHTML is that attributes within tags (such as the href attribute within a link tag) must use 'entities' for special reserved characters. For example, within mark-up, & has a special meaning. Greater than and less than signs (> and <) also have a special meaning, as they are used to define tags.

HyperWrite (2004). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

This document is an appendix to the W3C "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0". It provides a list of all checkpoints from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, organized by concept, as a checklist for Web content developers.

W3C (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Introduction to The Web Standards Curriculum

An introduction to a course designed to give anyone a solid grounding in web design/development, no matter who they are—it is completely free to use, accessible, and assumes no previous knowledge.

Mills, Chris. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards

The History of the Internet and the Web, and the Evolution of Web Standards

a brief overview of the creation of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and the "web standards" that this entire series focuses upon. I think it is useful and interesting to understand how we got to where we are, but it will be short enough so you don’t get overwhelmed, and can get into the details nice and quickly.

Francis, Mark Norman. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>History

The Web Standards Model: HTML, CSS and JavaScript

You can accomplish content, styling and layout just using HTML—font elements for style and HTML tables for layout, so why should I bother with this XHTML/CSS stuff? Here are the most compelling reasons for using CSS and HTML over outdated methods.

Lane, Jonathan. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards

Web Standards – A Beautiful Dream, But What's the Reality?

Web standards allow for interoperability between all web browsers, on every operating system, and even on every electronic device available. But is that really reality? The really simple answer is no; while that’s an ideal situation, that is far from reality.

Lane, Jonathan. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards

Acid Redux

I fully acknowledge that a whole lot of very clever thinking went into the construction of Acid3 (as was true of Acid2), and that a lot of very smart people have worked very hard to pass it. Congratulations all around, really. I just can’t help feeling like some broader and more important point has been missed.

Meyer, Eric. MeyerWeb (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Assessment

Helping Others Understand Web Accessibility

When I hold workshops for people who want to learn more about web standards and accessibility, I often notice that the attendants really have tried to improve their accessibility knowledge. But they get overwhelmed when they go to the official documentation from the W3C and try to understand it.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards