A Technology Pattern from
Patterns for Personal Web Sites
You're undoubtedly familiar with those little badges that say "This site looks best with browser X". What they unintentionally do is advertise a problem with the site. Turn the phrase around in your mind; it's equivalent to "This site might break on browsers beside X". It's likely that the site looks good with browser X not because X is a better browser, but because the site uses browser-specific markup. By making the site browser-specific, the site has become less usable and more fragile.
Therefore, write markup that validates according to published standards.
Browser-specific markup:
Writing pages with valid markup:
To write valid markup:
Coping with browsers that don't fully implement standards is a problem. If a noncompliant browser is an important target, you have two options: (1) restrict your site to a universally supported subset of the standards, or (2) use a simpler technology that the browser implements. In other words, choose an Appropriate Format, weighing the importance of the browser in the choice.
Remember: browsers change faster than standards. Use that fact.
Last updated 8 July 2003
http://www.rdrop.com/~half/Creations/Writings/Web.patterns/valid.markup.html
All contents ©2002-2003 Mark L. Irons