[thelist] A Different POV (was Coding for Standards & Conference Question) - long

[jay.blanchard at thermon.com]

Working in a corporate environment, an ISO 9001 environment, makes for some
interesting twists
for performing web development (all inclusive..Internet, Extranet,
Intranet, web applications, etc). Before
the first line of code hit the page I was asked to establish guidelines for
development including best
practices where standards entered the process. Explaining that there were
no standards, only recommendations,
our Quality Control management was SHOCKED! Upon recovering, they confirmed
that these recommendations
would suffice. I just have to print out a copy of each of the
recommendations, adhere to them, and keep them in a
well marked binder in my office. Included with that I must document, and
maintain a hard copy of the documentation
of the web site in my office, explaining any programming procedures. I also
must adhere to a software versioning
document which explains the documentation process, including commenting
within the code.

These requirements do make things easier though. If I were not able to be
here for some reason the next
developer would have a clear road map of where things are. If I were to
read your code, could I make heads of what
was going on? Could you come back to your code six moths later and know
what you did, and why? Standards
(recommendations) enhance further development.

Now enter cross-browser compatibility primarily for IE and Netscape
browsers. Even newer NS browsers have a
problem with margins, so relying on past experience I inserted marginheight
& width attributes along with other
margin attributes WHICH DO NOT VALIDATE, while also using CSS for those
browsers that recognize that technology.
Also included in the "does not validate" column are extra information in
mailto tags, such as "subject".  Also throwing
errors; additional information in URL links, the "name" attribute in forms,
the occasional "special character", like
apostrophe's. This was deemed acceptable as long as it was documented. To
my way of thinking, this should not be
"acceptable".

<rant>
What's funny here to me is that procedural languages, like C++, which are
used to construct browsers, have
very rigorous standards applied to them. Sure, there is more than one way
to solve a particular problem in any
procedural language, but the code must validate prior to compilation.
Scripting languages offer the same flexibility
as procedural languages, multiple methods to solve similar problems, but if
the syntax on one line is bad the script
will not run. However, mark-up languages to date rely solely on the person
writing the code to perform some sort of
acceptable coding practice, and even if it is not quite right it will still
show up in the browser, and it'll probably show
up just as the designer expected. But when it breaks...... :(

I am tired of hearing about how young our business is. 6 - 7 years in this
business is a long time. And yet we (as a
business) have been accused of demonstrating a lack of maturity, due in
part to not having recognizable standards
blamed on technology so rapidly changing that we cannot be expected to keep
up. As people who work in trenches
each and every day we should demand standards and demand that browser
manufacturers adhere to those standards.
Once standards are in place we can focus on doing that which our clients
wish us to do, which is design sites that meet
their needs without having to worry about coding two or three or four
versions of the same web site and doing browser
detection to send the visitor in the right direction.
</rant>

So, for those who ask "why standards?" tell them it is because it is the
smart thing to do. However, if they are looking
to design in obsolescence so that they can sell upgrades later standards
will not mean much.

Signed,

Fired up on a Monday morning!

Jay