The Two Great Things About Validation (and Conformance)

Published on Jan 30, 2009 (updated Oct 20, 2024), filed under development, conformance (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)

This and many other posts are also available as a pretty, well-behaved ebook: On Web Development.

There are two great things about validation: Validating helps technical understanding as it contributes to awareness of the underlying specifications, and writing valid code is a sign of professionalism.

Put another way, developers who don’t validate miss important opportunities to learn, and invalid code can in most cases be considered unprofessional.

However, invalid code doesn’t necessarily mean inaccessible or unmaintainable code. That’s a myth. You can invert that statement, too, though: Valid code doesn’t mean accessible or maintainable code, nor efficient or fast code.

From my comment on Valid sites work better (?). Revised.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)