HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) (3)

Maintainability Guide

Maintainability is important in order to deal with change. Good maintainability means making change easier and more affordable, and avoiding change that is not necessary…

#22 · Jun 17, 2009 · development, css, maintainability

CSS: The Maintenance Issue #1 and How You Can Avoid It

The biggest—as most unnecessary—maintenance issue in web development is, as my recent research shows, style sheet naming and integration. Web developers use inadvisable style sheet names and inadvisable ways to integrate style sheets that force them…

#21 · May 27, 2009 · development, css, maintainability

HTML vs. XHTML: Why HTML Wins

Document types are cool, and there are plenty of them. There are plenty, countless discussions about the “right” document type, too. Alas, these discussions may deal with irrelevant details or miss the point.

#20 · Dec 19, 2008 · development

An Exercise for Emerging CSS Experts: Avoid IDs and Classes

To gain more expertise with CSS, there’s a great bonus level: Try to avoid IDs and classes altogether. That’s right: Write your markup without any IDs and classes.

#19 · Oct 21, 2008 · development, css

The Most Important Thing Is to Get the HTML Right

Why? Because it’s the markup that makes for most of the code of a site and is hence key to cost efficiency and maintainability; because it carries meaning and is important for accessibility; because it often has an impact on performance; and because it is the prerequisite for online success.

#18 · Sep 26, 2008 · development, quality, semantics, accessibility, maintainability

When Guidelines Should Be Descriptive or Prescriptive

Every time I’m putting up guidelines or conventions one of the decisions I need to make is whether the guidelines, or which parts of them, should be descriptive or prescriptive. For coding guidelines this could mean the difference between, say, “the markup should be valid” and “the markup must be valid”…

#17 · Sep 13, 2008 · development, css, quality

To Be Clear (on Conditional Comments and Resets)

My articles on Conditional Comments and “reset” style sheets belong to the most popular articles on the respective topics not just on this site, but apparently on the Web. Now, it looks like I could still clarify my standpoint.

#16 · Aug 24, 2008 · development, css

A Few Words on HTML/CSS Frameworks

Public, or open, or external, HTML/CSS frameworks are rarely a good idea. Why? Because framework developers are outside of your organization and cannot know your needs. This simple fact, the inevitable ignorance of a third party, means that—

#15 · Aug 5, 2008 · development, css, frameworks, minimalism

Yes, You Can Use HTML 5

You can already use HTML 5: Just use <!DOCTYPE html> as your HTML documents’ document type. This works even though you will not yet benefit from new elements and attributes.

#14 · Jul 8, 2008 · development

When Validation Becomes Unimportant

Validation becomes unimportant only once you’re ahead of the game. Even then, truly mastering HTML and CSS, it’s best to stick with valid markup and styling. Improving latency might constitute the only exception—if at all.

#13 · Jun 16, 2008 · development, css, conformance

Optional Tags in HTML 4

For your convenience, here’s a list of all optional tags according to the HTML 4.01 Strict DTD. Omitting these tags allows to save markup and thus file size—if you choose to. I created this list because even nine years after release of the HTML 4 specification…

#12 · Jun 1, 2008 · development

Über-Semantics

Premasagar Rose recently published a great demonstration of what can be considered “über-semantic” code. I guess we can thank the microformats community here, which carefully avoids to rely on the semantics of HTML elements but…

#11 · May 27, 2008 · development, semantics

The World’s Best HTML Template

…again, exclusively, and as long as HTML 5 is in progress.

#10 · Apr 29, 2008 · development, minimalism

Great CSS Techniques and the Simple Truth Behind Them

There’s a simple recipe to judge CSS techniques: Does the method in question require HTML additions and modifications (beyond introducing IDs or classes)? If yes, the technique likely isn’t elegant and might be inadvisable.

#9 · Mar 11, 2008 · development, css, maintainability

Microformats Would Benefit From a Namespace

Microformats become more and more popular, accelerated by the questionable success of the nofollow microformat. However, those of them that mandate class names cause problems that could be avoided by using a “pseudo-namespace.”

#8 · Sep 13, 2007 · development, css, maintainability

HTML Elements Index

A regularly updated list of all elements in HTML 1, HTML 2.0, HTML 3.2, HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, XHTML 1.1, HTML 5.2, and living HTML, including their meanings.

#7 · Jun 30, 2007 · development

Arguments for the “style” Attribute

The HTML Working Group is currently arguing whether to drop the style attribute. To encourage discussion outside the Working Group, here are the reasons I see to keep @style.

#6 · Jun 27, 2007 · development

WCAG, HTML, and CSS: Maybe the Standards Need a Break

The web development community worries about the development of WCAG, HTML, and CSS (about the latter since recently). These worries and the related criticism appear valid and legitimate, and there are things we could do.

#5 · Jun 15, 2007 · development, css, accessibility

HTML: Semantics of “title” Element Content

I already proposed this in October 2005 but see the need to bring it up again: It would be useful to allow other elements within the title of an HTML document. Why? You otherwise cannot mark abbreviations and other flow content elements, which means their meaning gets lost…

#4 · Feb 26, 2007 · development, semantics