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>
> We can indeed. In my view its also a good thing (where possible) to lead
> by example (for our users and IPs) and employ coding that adheres to
> current
> international standards.
Exactly, if it doesn't have a DOCTYPE, and it doesn't pass
http://validator.w3.org/ then its not html. The target browser should be
something that displays HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0. (or rather the target should
be to have a page that passes that validation, with one of the current w3c
recommendations)
XHTML relies on HTML 4.01 for definitions of tags, but is more picky about
what is required. While we dont need to make everything (or anything) XHTML
now (since nothing supports it), we should make out HTML forwards comparable
with something that will strictly parse XHTML. So (from
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/) the following attached guidelines should be
followed
Im sure Im quoting someone here, but "well performed crap is still crap" and
I was reminded of this a few weeks ago at a music recital... It is possible
to produce technically valid html which is useless. 'Usefulness' is both a
factor of content and design (and design is not just the coolness factor,
but the ability to find information - and these leverage on each other).
The pre redesign site was not technically valid (no DOCTYPES anywhere, and
other errors).
The content itself is/was of questionable value (the index is mainly CCN
sites - I cant see any real value of this outside of CCN administration -
since it (the index) is nowhere near the 'critical mass' of sites its not a
useful repository of sites. To consumers of information (including most of
out members/users while not in "philosophical attachment" mode) the location
of a website is irrelevant.)
The design is pretty basic (in a good way), but the pages are very long
(lots of <p>'s in there?)... And there were inconsistency in the page design
between sections. (or more specifically, there were inconsistencies in the
implementation of the design...)
Hopefully utilization of the templates will clear up some of these (but not
the question of the content value).. But hopefully the redesign will attract
other volunteers, and (my) SQL autoindex thinger will have some work done on
it, so we can significantly increase the number of indexers (in an effort to
reach that 'critical mass'). Then well be getting somewhere
Anyway, on to that w3c recommendations
4. Differences with HTML 4
Due to the fact that XHTML is an XML application, certain practices
that were perfectly legal in SGML-based HTML 4
[HTML] must be changed.
4.1 Documents must be well-formed
Well-formedness is a new concept introduced by [XML]. Essentially
this means that all elements must either have closing
tags or be written in a special form (as described below), and that
all the elements must nest.
Although overlapping is illegal in SGML, it was widely tolerated in
existing browsers.
CORRECT: nested elements.
<p>here is an emphasized <em>paragraph</em>.</p>
INCORRECT: overlapping elements
<p>here is an emphasized <em>paragraph.</p></em>
4.2 Element and attribute names must be in lower case
XHTML documents must use lower case for all HTML element and
attribute names. This difference is necessary because
XML is case-sensitive e.g. <li> and <LI> are different tags.
4.3 For non-empty elements, end tags are required
In SGML-based HTML 4 certain elements were permitted to omit the end
tag; with the elements that followed implying
closure. This omission is not permitted in XML-based XHTML. All
elements other than those declared in the DTD as
EMPTY must have an end tag.
CORRECT: terminated elements
<p>here is a paragraph.</p><p>here is another paragraph.</p>
INCORRECT: unterminated elements
<p>here is a paragraph.<p>here is another paragraph.
4.4 Attribute values must always be quoted
All attribute values must be quoted, even those which appear to be
numeric.
CORRECT: quoted attribute values
<table rows="3">
INCORRECT: unquoted attribute values
<table rows=3>
4.5 Attribute Minimization
XML does not support attribute minimization. Attribute-value pairs
must be written in full. Attribute names such as
compact and checked cannot occur in elements without their value
being specified.
CORRECT: unminimized attributes
<dl compact="compact">
INCORRECT: minimized attributes
<dl compact>
4.6 Empty Elements
Empty elements must either have an end tag or the start tag must end
with />. For instance, <br/> or <hr></hr>. See
HTML Compatibility Guidelines for information on ways to ensure this
is backward compatible with HTML 4 user agents.
CORRECT: terminated empty tags
<br/><hr/>
INCORRECT: unterminated empty tags
<br><hr>
4.7 Whitespace handling in attribute values
In attribute values, user agents will strip leading and trailing
whitespace from attribute values and map sequences of one or
more whitespace characters (including line breaks) to a single
inter-word space (an ASCII space character for western
scripts). See Section 3.3.3 of [XML].
4.8 Script and Style elements
In XHTML, the script and style elements are declared as having
#PCDATA content. As a result, < and & will be treated as
the start of markup, and entities such as < and & will be
recognized as entity references by the XML processor to
< and & respectively. Wrapping the content of the script or style
element within a CDATA marked section avoids the
expansion of these entities.
<script>
<![CDATA[
... unescaped script content ...
]]>
</script>
CDATA sections are recognized by the XML processor and appear as
nodes in the Document Object Model, see Section 1.3
of the DOM Level 1 Recommendation [DOM].
An alternative is to use external script and style documents.
4.9 SGML exclusions
SGML gives the writer of a DTD the ability to exclude specific
elements from being contained within an element. Such
prohibitions (called "exclusions") are not possible in XML.
For example, the HTML 4 Strict DTD forbids the nesting of an 'a'
element within another 'a' element to any descendant
depth. It is not possible to spell out such prohibitions in XML.
Even though these prohibitions cannot be defined in the
DTD, certain elem