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The Importance of Web Standards
by Denis Boudreau
- DOM (Document Object Model) allows a scripting language to exert its full power and interactive capabilities on a Web page. It's a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of Web documents. They can be further processed, and that processing result can then be incorporated back into the Web page by the browser. The use of DOM as a standard will simplify DHTML coding, and will be fully compatible with upcoming technology improvements.
- ECMAScript (the standardized version of JavaScript) is a client-side, object-oriented scripting language based on several technologies such as Netscape's JavaScript and Microsoft's Jscript. The main use of ECMAScript is to manipulate objects in a Web document that are specified by the DOM. Through it, elements can be manipulated, moved, or have some properties changed, allowing Web developers to implement such effects as animated text and graphic rollovers. The current specification is in its third edition, as ECMA-262.
The W3C is also working on two recommendations to be introduced as standards in the near future: these are XHTML and XSL. XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) is a reformulation of HTML 4.0 into an XML application. XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) will be a mechanism though which XML documents will be transformed and displayed using a vocabulary specifically designed for XML.
So that's it folks: those are the standards upon which the Web should eventually rest. Others will inevitably crop up and some are bound to evolve or maybe even be dropped altogether... But while this is all very nice, one question still remains: why should anyone care at all?
Standards - Why Bother?
The use of standards automatically makes every page you build genuinely cross-browser and cross-platform. Anyone who's been active in Web development for more than 15 minutes knows how time-consuming and complicated it is to double-code for different browser versions. Standards help you avoid such tedium.
- Achieve a More Stable Web
With the arrival of new hardware like mobile phones and hand-held devices, coding 100% compatible Web applications will only get harder, if not simply impossible. Following the standards is the most efficient way to achieve a better, more stable Web, where applications we can only dream of today can be turned into the reality of tomorrow.
- Reduce Development and Maintenance Time
Coding in accordance with standards can shorten both development and maintenance time. Debugging and troubleshooting therefore becomes easier, because the code follows a pattern. Accessibility is another very important issue behind the Web standards: not only does it mean allowing the Web to be fully used by people with disabilities, it also means allowing people with unconventional browsers to have access to any Web page.
- Allow Backward Compatibility and Validation
Standards are written to be compliant with older browser versions. This is what the W3C refers to as "backward compatibility". While these browsers may not show everything as initially intended, they will still understand the basic structure of Web documents, and display them accordingly. Compliant code can also be validated through a validation service. This, again, makes the developer's work a lot easier and can save a lot of production time.
- Increase Search Engine Success
From a page ranking point of view, complying with standards also guarantees better results and increased visibility in search engines. Standards-compliant documents get indexed more accurately due to the structural information present in them, as they can be easily accessed and evaluated by mechanical and human methods alike. Compliant code can also be easily converted to other formats, such as databases or Word documents. This allows for more versatile use of the information within the document. It also allows a simplified migration to new systems such as televisions and PDAs.
- Graceful Degradation Now, and in the Future
Another important factor to remember is that most Web standards are designed with forward and backward compatibility in mind. This means that Web pages coded for old versions of the standards will still be supported in new versions of browsers, while Web pages coded for new versions of the standards will gracefully degrade to produce an acceptable result in older browsers.
- Common Knowledge
Web standards offer a set of rules that every developer can follow, understand, and become familiar with. When one developer builds a site according to standards, another will be able to pick up where the former left off as easily as if he had been the one designing it in the first place.
Wrapping Up
The Web has come a long way since the creation of the W3C in 1994. While the Consortium actively works at bettering things, much is still to achieve and it is up to Web developers worldwide to make the dream of a better Web a reality. The reasons mentioned above are some of the most important reasons why Web standards should matter to everyone.
Who knows how many people will access the Web on a cell phone, even next year? Is it 10% of Internet users? 20%? More even? Who knows? The only thing we can predict for sure is that a percentage of potential customers are likely to say particular ecommerce sites suck big time because they can't be accessed from a specific Internet output device or older browser version. This is therefore an equivalent percentage of potential online sales that will go up in smoke for those retailers who don't comply to the standards. Users are never wrong. You will always be the one identified as a bad developer.
Now that oughta hurt, don't you think?
A talented Web developer will always be a talented Web developer whether he has to hack around his code or not. It seems much more appealing to be recognized as a talented standards application specialist oriented towards the Web's future than a talented workaround code-hacker specialized in technologies that are becoming more obsolete by the day.
About the Author
Denis Boudreau is an experienced Webmaster and Web standards advocate, specialized in frontend technologies. Aside from his day job as a Senior Web developer, he runs CYBERcodeur.net, a French Weblog devoted to cutting edge technologies such as XHTML and CSS.
All articles published on EthanCote.com are copyrighted by their respective author. They are not to be taken without the consent of the author.
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