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Web Standards
In the beginning...
... the World Wide Web was more like the World Wild West. During the major browser wars, each browser developer offered a product with its own proprietary structure and features. It was an ongoing nightmare for web site developers because code that would function on one browser would break on another. It was essential to write code that would first "browser sniff," i.e., detect which browser a user had and then serve up code specifically tailored to that browser. Hence, it was soon apparent that increasing standardization among browsers was a necessary and desirable thing. With oversight from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Internet Engineering Task Force, and other bodies, each generation of browsers has moved closer to the goal of a common internal structure and coding practices. "Standards Compliance" became the watchword. Firefox and Opera were developed with standards compliance in mind right from the get go. Safari wasn't far behind. With the release of Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft caught up, and the nightmare for web developers ended. It is now possible to write a single version of HTML, CSS and JavaScript code that will run satisfactorily on nearly everyone's browser. Oh, happy day!
While I'm not a "standarista" (standards fanatic), I do endeavor to adhere to the coding standards set by the W3C. By running my code through their set of validators, I can assure myself and my clients that there are no coding errors and that the site offers maximum accessibility within the limits of any particular design.
When you see any of the following images on a page on this site, you'll know the page has passed the W3C tests:
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