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Future for Web Standards Pondered
An anonymous reader writes "With the next version of Internet Explorer tied to the release of longhorn, and still years off, what hope is there for innovation in CSS, SVG, XHTML and other web standards? Is the future of the web similarly tied to Internet Explorer and Longhorn? This article ponders this gloomy future, and sees a ray or two of hope."
the W3C already ignores common sense and evolution in general. While I agree with the principles in general, their disregaurd for basic ideas of layout and page design make it clear that they dont really care what a page looks like, only how it is structured.
So why care about IE at all?
They're trying to create standards, and if Microsoft doesnt want to release any software which contains the latest technologies, it will be their own demise.
When Compact-Discs were developed, everyone knew it would be years before most people had access to them, but the technology was developed anyway for the sake of progress and producing a superior format.
That said, XHTML is fucking stupid.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Take a look at CSSzengarden.com [csszengarden.com] if you are not yet convinced in XHTML with CSS is artistically pleasing enough
Come off it. CSS Zen Garden has NOTHING to do with real world web development. The contributors to this site are CSS gurus who have laboured over endless hacks just to achieve what can be done with tables easily. Few will admit that CSS was badly conceived, IE domination or not. CSS looks simple but then so does the alaphabet. Once you try combining a few things to do basic stuff - float, div widths, inheritance - you hit the real flaws within CSS. No, it's NOT all down to implementation. The CSS standard is crap. That's half the reason we're in such a mess. How many browsers do you know that implement the CSS2 standard FULLY after all this time? How many years ago was the CSS2 spec finalised? The fact that many OSS browsers are only "almost there" suggests one thing to me - that the standards is a pile of crap.
A good example of the futility of working with the CSS standard is Jeffrey Zeldman's site www.zeldman.com. This site has been through so many redesigns yet inevitably each new redesign breaks in some major browser or other. If the godfather of web standards can't get it to work I ain't gonna waste my time duplicating his pain.
If you wanna master CSS make sure you don't have anything else useful to do with your life 'cos you're gonna be up 'til 4 in the morning each night trying to tweak some hack to get a div to align properly.
As a result, businesses with bad web sites lose a percentage of their business, but they don't seem to be capable of realising that. If something does not conform to published standards to the extent that it will not work in Mozilla, that company can expect no money from me. I will not reboot into a vile, bug-infested OS, and then open a major security hole, just to to business with them, I will simply go elsewhere.
Marketing men beware. If you employ idiots (often at vast expense) to design your web site, you will immediately lose about 10% of your possible sales. Your job might follow. And in any case, why pander to the wishes of a Convicted Criminal Monopoly? Be independent, think for yourselves, and get it done properly. It should not cost any more than getting it done badly, your site will look more professional, and no-one will fail to buy something because of a stupid browser incompatability.