Sent by Matthias Gutfeldt on 1 February 2002 08:08
--- Lee Hinde [EMAIL-REMOVED]> wrote:
> So, what do you think of the frequently seen:
>
> > This site's design will look best in a graphical browser
> > that supports style sheets. We recommend you download
> > the latest version of ....
Eric wants us to provide practical advice, not theoretic excursions.
I think that's a good idea! So I'll try to be as practical as
possible. Even though I'm a big fan of theoretical ramblings, these
theoretical ramblings are clearly marked as such, so you can easily
ignore them :-).
Practical advice #1: Use the right markup to structure your document:
<http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/#whatis>,
<http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/global.html>.
**********************
Theoretical rambling #1: The update/standards notice is usually at
the very top of the document, the first thing after the opening body
tag; from a document structure point of view, this means it's very
important - otherwise it wouldn't be at the top. Alistapart even puts
the note in a H1, which means it's the most important heading of that
document.
However, in most cases the notice has nothing to do with the rest of
the page. So it's bad markup, and even worse when it is put into a
heading. You will also note that on the current ALA article the
"Getting paid" image is not marked up as a heading. So on that page,
we get this basic structure:
TITLE: A List Apart 134: Web Design, Code, Content
Heading 2: "This site’s design is only visible in a graphical
browser [...]"
IMG: alt="The wages of sin are getting harder to collect"
Heading 3: DEATH OF A THOUSAND PAPER CLIPS
The title doesn't tell me anything about the content of the document,
the heading 2 doesn't briefly describe the topic of the section it
introduces, the section after heading 3 is not about paper clips, etc
etc. This means the document doesn't follow the published HTML
specification.
**********************
Practical advice #2: Beware of internet devices that don't read
stylesheets.
**********************
(Somewhat) theoretical rambling #2: Some search engines use content
and headings to construct a meaningful description of the site. The
current listing for Alistapart at google is:
"This site?s design is only visible in a graphical browser that
supports web standards, but its content is accessible to any browser
or Internet device. | WHY ..."; see
<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=alistapart>. Sure, there's a
one-line description afterwards. But is this notice really what the
authors want to show up in the search engine? Is this what you would
want for your site listing? I doubt it. Put the notice in one
separate document, or at the end of your document. Don't put it at
the beginning, and don't put it in a heading.
**********************
Practical advice #3: Don't create maintenance problems with CSS.
**********************
Theoretical rambling #3: Just like the old proprietary markup mess,
the current solution depends on known browser bugs and
implementations. But we don't know about future browser bugs or
implementation problems. Therefore, the display:none "solution"
requires the author to install and test all future browsers just to
make sure he doesn't serve the notice to the "wrong" browser...
**********************
> Ok, put another way, if you depreciate (is that the right word?)
> gracefully, do you see a need to let your users know that what
> they're seeing isn't the best you have to offer?
Practical advice #4: It's part of the specification that some or all
of the author stylesheet may be ignored.
**********************
Theoretical rambling #4: "look best" is not defined in any W3C
specification.
**********************
Matthias
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions!
http://auctions.yahoo.com
