Did you ever stop and wonder what the Web might look like if there were no
standards? I think it would be a web of confusion.
It reminds me of a file cabinet that I have full of important electronic data
that I've accumulated over the years. I have accounting information on floppy
disks from years ago. The data was written in what is now long-obsolete
software in file formats I can't access. If the World Wide Web were like my
file cabinet it would be full of information written in Word 97 and
WordPerfect and, depending on the year I generated the files, some of it
would be in the Apple Macintosh format while others would be in Microsoft PC
format. I have images created in formats ranging from TIFF to PCX. The files
I've generated over 10 years ago are almost all in proprietary formats.
What a limited and expensive World Wide Web it would be if there were no
standard... (more)
Did you ever stop and wonder what the web might look like today if there were
no standards? I think it would be a web of confusion. It reminds me of a file
cabinet that I have full of important electronic data that I have accumulated
over the years. I have accounting information on floppy disks from years
past. The data was written by what is now long-obsolete software in file
formats that I cannot access. If the World Wide Web were like my file cabinet
it would be full of information written in Word 97 and Word Perfect and
depending on the year I generated the files, some would ... (more)
No doubt, you have heard about XML. XML is everywhere. For Web designers,
that can add to the confusion. If something is everywhere, it's nowhere. If
only you heard "XML is the new HTML," then maybe you could wrap your mind
around it as a markup language. But chances are, you've heard much more than
that about XML.
You may have heard one or more of the following: XHTML is based on XML. XML
is a way of storing information. XML is part of Web services. XML is an
object in Flash. XML is part of Flash remoting. Dreamweaver supports XML. XML
is all of this and more. Thus the confusio... (more)
Kevin Ruse is the author of “Web Standards Design Guide” published by Charles River Media, Inc. The book explores the current standards: XML, XHTML, CSS, XForms and XLink as well as workflow issues involving these standards.
David Lucas
Shaul Efraim
Terence Martin Breslin
Cory Marchand
David Hughes
James Carlini
John Iffert
Dan Stolts
Joe Zeto
