Transitional Web Thoughts

April 08, 2003 | 2 Comments

Well, I’m back from Disneyland and back on the beat. I came across a few interesting views on Web standards and forward compatibility. The first is from Peter-Paul Koch over at Evolt, and the second is a post (and reply to the first) over at Mezzoblue.

I think I can agree with both. This whole issue is something that I struggle with on a daily basis, and I would bet most of you do as well. I mean Web standards is a great idea, in principle. But, as I’ve often said, it can be quite a pain in the ass in practice. Out in the real world it’s not all giving talks and writing books. Today, for instance I had to covert some old FrontPage code and some Word docs to HTML. The amount of effort involved in bringing these up to Web standards snuff just isn’t worth it. That said, I have to admit I waffle on this issue quite a bit.

I’m in the process of building out the templates for our external site’s redesign and my original goal was to be like the Fast Companies and Wireds of the Web world and go all tableless. A few headaches and a conversation with Eric Meyer later I’ve come to the realization that this just isn’t practical in my case. It’s something I’d figured before, but didn’t want to accept.

I want to do it right, damn it! Smile.

No, really I think I’m at the point now that in my mind transitional Web development is the way to go. You weigh what you want to achieve standards and forward compatibility-wise, and I agree with PPK when he says these things are not the same, against the goals of your site and the amount of effort needed to pull it off and go from there.

Filed under: Web Design