Web standards, where are we going? Some ideas ...

Web|web Standard

• Original Author: Veerle
• Original source:veerle.duoh.com
• Original publication date: June 14, 2004

Translator Note: This article is "you should pay attention to the real reason of web standards" after the article published Veerle wrote a sentiment article, the author mentioned 2 ideas, but attracted various opinions and suggestions, I will part of the commentary attached to the text. Can see the Foreign technology blog discussion atmosphere is also very good, at least a lot of people involved. Interested suggestions look at the original.

Translation

I have learned a lot about web standards and are using them. I also know very well that using web standards is not to be proud to say "Hi, did your site pass the standard check?" "But for the other more. But as a web designer, the "elite", sometimes always feel puzzled, only to use and tell others the Web standards are not all, the question is: We do now, then next year or after that, is the situation still the way it is? Still a few designers adopt web standards, and most designers continue to design sites for IE? Where the hell are we going?

This question was created after I read the article " you should focus on the real reason for Web standards " written by FireAndrei. And because of Keith's recent article on Web standards . How do we go further and do something practical for web standards? The first step I think (maybe a bad idea at all) is that Web pros, such as Eric Meyer,Douglas Bowman , and so on, are fully redesigned and planned for the site and guide manuals for the consortium. Andrei is an excellent example of a package of knowledge and effects in his article "Design Eye for the Usability Man". It simply and clearly points to the flaws in many aspects of the Web site, such as ugly interfaces. Andrei also mentioned the launch of a fund-raising fund to promote this, and I personally think it's a very good idea and starting point.

Transformation of the Consortium

The consortium can be said to be at the heart of everything about web standards. I mean, all the things that the consortium is like is a garage where you "drive" your site into the refueling and get all the maintenance. The reality is that, if you're just starting to learn web standards, the validation warning for the world's consortium may be difficult for you to understand. The fact that the consortium should contain all the CSS tutorials should give you a simple answer rather than a vague question of what to do now. You may need to go to a site to find the answer, others find answers at other sites, and the authoritative answers spread across the web and continue to spark controversy. It would be a pleasure to have all the problems solved in the consortium. When the problem occurs, the first thing you should think about is visiting the consortium. OK, I know this idea is not easy to implement, but the consortium should at least be useful and inspire people to learn web standards, and I am willing to devote myself to such work.

Rebuilding the consortium still cannot change the status quo of only a few people using standards, but at least a start. The real reason for the slow spread of web standards is that Microsoft does not care, does not care about its behavior and mistakes, because they have the ability to do (rather than do). Just like their security vulnerabilities, almost every day, even if the user costs a lot of money can not change this situation. Microsoft is willing to spend some of the resources of L Onghorn to continue to support XP Service Pack 2 simply because too many problems have been exposed by the media and pressured to do so.

Eu

The case of the European Union punishing Microsoft Windows Media Player is a joke! Every time, when I need to put a movie on the page, I use QuickTime technology, it is a very good software, you can get files short but good quality movies, can get better script processing ability and so on. But every time I have to "fight" and debate with my clients almost crazily, the customer's argument is that most Web users use Windows Media Player, why not Windows Media Player? It's always like this ... Isn't it annoying? The EU can punish Microsoft for what they want, but it doesn't change Microsoft's mind and action, we live in a democratic society, but it doesn't mean it is democratic in the software world, but the software world is full of monopolies. The same thing happened to IE in Internet Explorer. Perhaps it is our responsibility to tell the European Union and the American government what kind of environment we live in every day, but I am almost certain that no one has the ability to do that, since there is no longer a Web specialist (at least my knowledge is not enough).

Why not force the manufacturers of web design software to develop applications to support web standards, forcing us to use web standards in this rigorous way? Is it possible to do so, possibly successfully? In this way, it doesn't even attract people's questioning. I believe that only by giving Microsoft a certain amount of pressure can we achieve some goals. Without pressure, everything will go on and nothing will change, and Microsoft may continue a big battle. Look at Robert Scoble's comments .

A blacklist?

How about setting up a blacklist site? Blacklist all sites that force you to use IE and are unwilling to adopt web standards. All Web-Standard blog sites establish links to the blacklist site (where the "Get FireFox" icon or Zeldman icon is placed below the link). If a lot of exposure, I believe most companies want to remove from the blacklist. I know it's intense, but most business sites can understand, and maybe they've never heard of web standards, that's true. Such "vehemence" may be necessary, perhaps indirectly, to influence Microsoft.

A quality label/certificate

Another idea is to give a quality certificate, or quality label, to a commercial site that uses web standards, like an ISO certificate. In so doing, we can not only give our customers a guarantee: The site is based on Web standards, customers will also benefit. After all, a product with the world's recognized quality label will add to the selling point. If this can increase the "credibility and reputation" or exposure opportunities, I believe that customers are willing to consider accepting this method. If a large number of companies choose this approach, Microsoft will feel the pressure and consider what to do with web standards.

These are my own wild ideas, I do not know how to achieve, and do not know whether it can be achieved. But at least I'm concerned and trying to think about something. Perhaps these ideas can then be seen and accepted by many people, including web-standard leaders, and then begin to act. Also need some money to help start, change things need to spend a lot of energy and money.

-----finished the translation. The following is a summary of some of the comments in this article, please see the text for more comments.

Comment Summary

Lukasz: Why are you so upset about IE that you must do something about it? Face the fact: Windows is the world's most common operating system, IE is the most common browser, IE has reached more than 95% of the share. Why should anyone care about margin (FireFox, Mozilla, whatever)? As a user, I am concerned with information, not whether the company is following the standard. Suggest you consider: Microsoft Browser does not support standard, why still so popular?

Lars: People have been using IE for a long time, and the company has set up Web standards that match IE's browsing without concern for the Internet because of the extra cost, because there is no WYSIWYG, standard-compliant editing tool. It is also almost impossible to create a blacklist, there are too many sites only for IE design. As for Lukasz said IE share more than 95%, I do not agree, read the Zeldman "Designin g with Web standards" a book knows that many other browsers are pretending to be IE to be able to display only for IE design site.

Bytewarrior: There's already a blacklist, look here promozilla.nl (in Holland). There are more than 300 sites on the blacklist, 50 of which have changed to support Mozilla/firefox.

Tinotino: Microsoft is playing smart but not wise, we are small axes on the tree. We need standards, just as if inches were not standard, we would use our feet to measure. I hate debugging site bugs on every available browser, which is idiotic and inefficient.

Rob van der Linde: If necessary, I can help write pho/mysql to support the creation of a global blacklist list site (take advantage of my spare time). But I can't provide server space and domain name, maybe we can seek the support of a group of PHP programmers, or build such a project in SourceForge.

David: I'm a designer and I know nothing about the program. Looking at all the posts, I think it's not people who don't want to use standards, but people who already have skilled design skills who don't want to give up design and write code.

Veerle (author): To David, I can understand that change is not particularly noticeable for designers. I am a graphic designer who is not afraid to study the code of the category. If writing code makes your hair stand out in fear, it doesn't mean anything. I think the WYSIWYG editing software (like Dreamweaver) can help you. As a good web designer, even if you only care about the interface and appearance, I believe that some basic knowledge such as how the code is generated must be known. My daily job is to design the interface (UI) and submit (X) HTML templates to programmers, my focus is on the UI but I still want the page code to be concise and standard to replace multiple nested tables. When I started to learn web production in 1996, it was all handwritten code, which became my biggest advantage now, as a designer, if you know how to design and understand xhtml/css skills, this will be your capital.