Web Standards

X-UA-Compatible and HTML5

If you for some reason have to use the non-standard X-UA-Compatible header to force standards mode in IE, be aware that it is invalid HTML5. Fortunately it is easy to fix.

Posted on March 31, 2011

Validation matters

Many kinds of validation errors do not effect the end result at all. But in almost all cases neither does correcting those errors, so there is no point in not doing so.

Posted on September 27, 2010

What characters are allowed unencoded in query strings?

Trying to bring clarity to exactly what characters can be used in URL query strings without first percent encoding them.

Posted on August 30, 2010

Be careful with non-ascii characters in URLs

Unless you have really strong internationalisation requirements, consider sticking to the following characters in URLs: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, -, ., _, and ~.

Posted on June 14, 2010

The Web is a web of content, not an application framework

The Web excels at enabling people to find and share information, but it is not a particularly good platform for creating and delivering "desktop-class applications".

Posted on May 10, 2010

A call for consistent display of alt text across browsers

How browsers display alt text for missing images varies, so it would be nice to see this standardised by specifying the recommended behaviour in HTML 5.

Posted on January 20, 2010

New W3C website launched

The new W3C website was launched on October 13, 2009. It sports a new design, new content, new information architecture, and a bit of invalid CSS (which has caused some debate).

Posted on October 19, 2009

Professional front-end engineering explained

An excellent presentation of what it means to work as a front-end developer, and how important our work is to the overall health of the web.

Posted on April 21, 2009

Character encoding

Character encoding can be very tricky to get right all the way from your keyboard to the end user’s browser, but reading these two articles may increase your chances of getting it right.

Posted on November 4, 2008

Google to webmasters: Write clean HTML and consider accessibility

Google encourages webmasters to make sure their websites work in all browsers by writing valid HTML and considering accessibility.

Posted on October 7, 2008

What does Acid3 mean to you and me?

Opera and Apple have announced that their web browsers pass the Acid3 Browser Test, but how will that help web designers and developers?

Posted on April 1, 2008

The Email Standards Project launches

A project that will work with email client developers and web designers to improve web standards support and accessibility in HTML email has been launched.

Posted on December 5, 2007

The W3C process may be slow, but browser vendors are slower

Don’t blame the W3C for being slow when the real problem is browser vendors not implementing existing specifications fully and properly.

Posted on November 6, 2007

Help improve support for Web Standards in HTML email

HTML email sucks, but it isn’t going away. So instead of complaining we should do what we can to help improve support for Web Standards in email clients.

Posted on September 11, 2007

A letter from WASP-EduTF to Skolverket

An attempt to influence the Swedish National Agency for Education to update the web development methods being taught in Swedish schools.

Posted on May 22, 2006

Ten reasons to learn and use web standards

Some of the most important reasons for spending the time to learn all about using web standards to design and develop websites.

Posted on December 6, 2005

Are invalid attributes valid?

A discussion on whether invalid HTML attributes may be acceptable under some circumstances.

Posted on October 11, 2005

Converting your team

Being the only person on a team of web designers and developers who knows or cares about web standards is probably very common. I’m sure m…

Posted on September 15, 2004

Content negotiation, AdSense, and comments

A few weeks ago I posted about my experiences with content negotiation, and some roadblocks I ran into when looking to serve XHTML documen…

Posted on September 1, 2004

Web development mistakes, redux

There have been a lot of comments on my recent post about common web development mistakes, and that’s great. Not all comments are of the k…

Posted on August 30, 2004

Web development mistakes

When I visit a website, especially if it’s the site of a competitor or a prospective client, I like viewing source and take a look at what…

Posted on August 24, 2004

Tables for layout?

Recently, both Andy Budd and Dave Shea have written about how they consider using tables for layout acceptable in some cases. While I unde…

Posted on May 16, 2004

Fear of web standards

When I made Developing with web standards (and the Swedish version, Webbutveckling med standarder) available online, I didn’t really know …

Posted on April 24, 2004

Developing with web standards, now in English

A couple of weeks ago I promised to make an English version of Webbutveckling med standarder. Well, I spent most of the Easter weekend tra…

Posted on April 14, 2004

Developing with web standards

A couple of weeks back I published Webbutveckling med standarder, a document in Swedish in which I attempt to explain web standards and ac…

Posted on April 1, 2004

Webbutveckling med standarder

The title of this entry may not mean much to most of my readers since it is in Swedish. The reason for that is that I’ve finally gone ahea…

Posted on March 13, 2004

Standards, semantics and old habits

Lately several people have written about how many people who learned HTML a few years ago have problems accepting that they need to relear…

Posted on August 30, 2003

Apple to join the web standards race

Douglas Bowman of Stopdesign and Jeffrey Zeldman of Happy Cog Studios are going to help Apple Computer make their web site standards compl…

Posted on August 29, 2003

Making a case for standards and accessibility

A common hurdle on the way towards a modern, standards compliant web site is making management, designers and clients understand the benef…

Posted on August 3, 2003

RIP BUC

The Web Standards Project’s Browser Upgrade Campaign has been retired. Guess I have to go through a bunch of sites where I have used a hid…

Posted on April 22, 2003