Thursday, May 9, 2002
Webstandards
Posted by Tycho Morgan in "THOUGHT" @ 08:00 PM
http://www.webstandards.org
I hate Pocket Internet Explorer.
Let’s revise that: I hate browsers that don’t conform to the web standards developed by the W3C, this includes Pocket Internet Explorer. In my spare time (ha!) I do a little bit of web design. As a general rule, the sites I design focus on text and use CSS and XHTML for rendering, and PHP or SSI for dynamic generation. I use this design philosophy because it allows me to separate content from design, focus from the fluff, and in the end I think it makes things easier to manage and maintain. There are enough things and commitments in my life (reality, this site, other projects, artistic pursuits, etc.) that I don’t want to waste my time dealing with what amounts to incompetence on the part of the software designers.
Web standards are good for everyone: designers/owners, users, and companies that are trying to develop devices for mobile information portals. Designers/owners/webmasters want web standards because it means less design work, better designs, and more time for important tasks such as content. Users unknowingly like standards because it means pages are quicker to load, designs work as they are intended, and because web standards allow a greater focus on what is really important. Companies seeking to establish mobile technology platforms should support web standards, because it makes it easier for web developers to create websites with useful dynamic content. Without web standards no one is helped, and the amount of valuable work that can be accomplished is greatly reduced.
Pocket Internet Explorer in Pocket PC 2002 is based on Regular Internet Explorer for Windows 4.0 (which of course renders differently than the Mac version, but that’s another rant for another website). The version 4 browsers were the absolute worst around. A good chunk of them didn’t support such important standards as CSS, those that didn’t them in the same way. This sent web designers looking for the right combination of codes to get their sites working well in all browsers, and ultimately to the creation of the web standards project. Version 5 browsers were a bit better (if they were even released), almost all of them accepted standards, but there were still discrepancies. With the release of version 6, most browsers are standards compliant; however, there are still differences that are mildly annoying.
In any case, Pocket Internet Explorer doesn’t have any support for CSS, seeing as that the rendering engine was dated upon creation. This is generally a bad thing, making development of quality mobile websites a HUGE pain in the rump.
What are your thoughts?
I hate Pocket Internet Explorer.
Let’s revise that: I hate browsers that don’t conform to the web standards developed by the W3C, this includes Pocket Internet Explorer. In my spare time (ha!) I do a little bit of web design. As a general rule, the sites I design focus on text and use CSS and XHTML for rendering, and PHP or SSI for dynamic generation. I use this design philosophy because it allows me to separate content from design, focus from the fluff, and in the end I think it makes things easier to manage and maintain. There are enough things and commitments in my life (reality, this site, other projects, artistic pursuits, etc.) that I don’t want to waste my time dealing with what amounts to incompetence on the part of the software designers.
Web standards are good for everyone: designers/owners, users, and companies that are trying to develop devices for mobile information portals. Designers/owners/webmasters want web standards because it means less design work, better designs, and more time for important tasks such as content. Users unknowingly like standards because it means pages are quicker to load, designs work as they are intended, and because web standards allow a greater focus on what is really important. Companies seeking to establish mobile technology platforms should support web standards, because it makes it easier for web developers to create websites with useful dynamic content. Without web standards no one is helped, and the amount of valuable work that can be accomplished is greatly reduced.
Pocket Internet Explorer in Pocket PC 2002 is based on Regular Internet Explorer for Windows 4.0 (which of course renders differently than the Mac version, but that’s another rant for another website). The version 4 browsers were the absolute worst around. A good chunk of them didn’t support such important standards as CSS, those that didn’t them in the same way. This sent web designers looking for the right combination of codes to get their sites working well in all browsers, and ultimately to the creation of the web standards project. Version 5 browsers were a bit better (if they were even released), almost all of them accepted standards, but there were still discrepancies. With the release of version 6, most browsers are standards compliant; however, there are still differences that are mildly annoying.
In any case, Pocket Internet Explorer doesn’t have any support for CSS, seeing as that the rendering engine was dated upon creation. This is generally a bad thing, making development of quality mobile websites a HUGE pain in the rump.
What are your thoughts?
