[thelist] Advice please on CSS XML XHTML etc.

[Benjer]

Thankyou for the response.

I've decided to take on board what you have said, am currently researching
to build myself a small site based on all of these specs.

I've been using Evolt, alistapart, beyondthebox, bluerobot etc.

I'm looking for links on how to incorporate accessability, css and xhtml but
also to include backward compatability nn4, ie5pc etc.

Can be as simple as "only use <strong> and <em> etc." or more advanced css
layouts. But any links resources that anyone has come across would be much
appreciated as sites like the w3.org are such a minefield.

Ben

On 9/10/02 7:00 pm, "David.Cantrell at Gunter.AF.mil"
<David.Cantrell at Gunter.AF.mil> wrote:

>> So to get a general idea I'd like some opinions/advice on what to spend my
>> current thirst for knowledge on, I'm stuck between:
>>
>> Following WC3 recommends and building CSS sites, getting messy with XHTML.
>
> XHTML is not messy -- in fact it is cleaned-up HTML with a slight change in
> syntax to make it readable by XML parsers.
>
> Is this important to you? Maybe, maybe not. But remember, browsers are
> becoming more and more standards-based every day. And the point of XHTML is
> that you get "forward" compatibility built in.
>
> I have a fully-dynamic site in ASP that I am redesigning, and while it's not
> technically XHTML yet (for backward compatibility purposes) I do use XHTML
> syntax (self-closing tags, etc) to make the move easier, and have already
> found one benefit to using the XHTML approach: easy migration to other
> output devices. I use a table-based layout but all styling is done via CSS.
> All navigational and "chrome" elements (global nav, masthead, site toolbar,
> main body, and footer) are given a unique ID. Before, nobody could print out
> reports or information from our site, or if they could they got page after
> page littered with toolbars and such. Now with the new approach, I just slap
> in a print stylesheet and inside it I set all the unnecessary sections to
> "display: none" and *poof* like magic I get easy printouts. Gotta love it.
> :D
>
> The idea expands to other platforms as well, i.e. if you have to develop for
> browsers and PDAs, then XHTML allows you to write the *structure* once, and
> then write a stylesheet or two for each of the target platforms, and it
> works.
>
> My site doesn't work that way, because our layout requires tables so far
> (CSS isn't quite capable of it yet, and not all browsers support what it is
> capable of) but it's going to be a heck of a lot easier when the time comes
> to migrate.
>
>> Learning ASP and incorporating more CSS into our table layouts.
>
> ASP has nothing to do with it. ASP is a server-side dynamic scripting
> framework. XHTML is client-side, ASP is server-side. The ASP generates the
> XHTML and sends it to the browser, which interprets the XHTML (and CSS, etc)
> and displays the page.
>
> Soooo... you can learn both! :D
>
> -dave

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benjer at macmail.com
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