Another thread got me thinking about something that I haven’t paid too much attention to—HTML coding. Quite frankly, I’m more concerned about the look and feel of my websites than the back end stuff that makes them work.
However, I don’t want to look like a total idiot when it comes to coding. In a new thread, an Opera Forum member basically said that one of our fellow Freeway Pro users was using outdated coding.
I quickly reviewed the differences between HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, both transitional, and it appears that the only limitation with XHTML 1.0 Transitional is that it doesn’t allow link targeting. Is there anything else that I should be aware of if I want to make the switch to XHMTL 1.0?
Switching from HTML 4.01 to XHTML 1.0 brings almost no direct benefits for the visitors of your Web site; still, there are several good reasons for Web authors to make the switch:
XHTML is easier to maintain
XML syntax rules are far more rigorous than HTML. As a result, XHTML makes authors work more precisely, having to address issues such as:
all elements and attribute names must appear in lower case
all attribute values must be quoted
non-Empty Elements require a closing tag
empty elements are terminated using a space and a trailing slash
no attribute minimization is allowed
in strict XHTML, all inline elements must be contained in a block element
In HTML, case, quotes, termination of many elements and uncontained elements are allowed and commonplace. The margin for errors in HTML is much broader than in XHTML, where the rules are very clear. As a result, XHTML is easier to author and to maintain, since the structure is more apparent and problem syntax is easier to spot. etc. etc. etc.
None of which means a whole lot to the average FW user!
True, but if I’m not using up-to-date coding methods what does that say about me as a website developer, and doesn’t that make it easier for my competitors to steal some of my existing clients?
It really depends a lot on why your clients are coming to you. If they care deeply about Web standards, then they’re probably not going to accept a Freeway-generated site. Freeway writes 100% valid code, but it doesn’t write that code out in a way that separates the content from the presentation.
The complaints that the Operaista raised are entirely valid, if a little pedantic.
You can do a lot to fix many of these issues – renaming and consolidating the ‘style23’-type classnames that are automatically generated whenever you apply local styles is a big one. Creating an inline layout will naturally enforce a much more logical flow to your page code, too.
The more you read about semantic Web coding, the better. Freeway works really well “out of the box” with no serious intervention from you, but it will definitely only go so far if you’re being judged against a hand-coder. There’s a separate learning curve ahead of you, as you start from “make it look like this to a human” to “make it mean the same thing to a human as a robot as a blind person with a screen reader”. And part of your chore will be to learn and understand what Freeway does when you draw a box here and put some text in it. Once you start to see the page in terms of code, you will reach a decision point – do you do as Todd did and wholly embrace hand-coding? Or do you learn to force Freeway to write more semantic code? Or do you use a mixture of those techniques? I personally do both.
Walter
On Feb 12, 2012, at 8:38 PM, RavenManiac wrote:
True, but if I’m not using up-to-date coding methods what does that say about me as a website developer, and doesn’t that make it easier for my competitors to steal some of my existing clients?
Thanks for the insight Walter. I’m not sure if this is the norm, but most of my clients don’t know, and probably don’t care, what application I’m using to create their websites.
But this does raise and interesting question. If someone wanted to use Dreamweaver or some other application to update a Freeway created website, could they?
On 13 Feb 2012, 1:57 am, waltd wrote:
It really depends a lot on why your clients are coming to you. If they care deeply about Web standards, then they’re probably not going to accept a Freeway-generated site. Freeway writes 100% valid code, but it doesn’t write that code out in a way that separates the content from the presentation.
Absolutely, as long as they weren’t trying to edit the Freeway document itself. The HTML and resources generated by Freeway are 100% normal HTML and images and scripts. The Freeway document itself does not contain any HTML, it’s more like the document format for QuarkXPress or InDesign. (Recall, neither of those save their native files in PostScript, even though that’s what they generate when you print from them. Freeway “prints” in HTML.)
Walter
On Feb 12, 2012, at 10:13 PM, RavenManiac wrote:
If someone wanted to use Dreamweaver or some other application to update a Freeway created website, could they?
The more you read about semantic Web coding, the better.
Absolutely. It’ll give you a broader understanding of the bigger picture and how it all fits together. Plus you’ll have a better perspective of your work and where you can improve and ultimately deliver a higher-quality product. There are several people on this list who do exactly what Walter does by mixing FW and hand-coding to get what they want. It really does open the door to a bigger world once you take the step to learn what’s happening under the hood. It benefits you and your clients.