Developing with web standards

What are web standards ?

Web standards is a general term for the technical specifications defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to create and interprete web content. Theses "standards" have been created to improve accessibility, interopability and portability of web documents. A standards respectful development permits to make your documents more perennial.

Many languages have been standardized by the W3C : XHTML, HTML 4.0, XML, CSS, MathML, SVG, DOM, and ECMAScript.

Web standards advantages

Web standards advantages are large :

• A simplified development : a semantic and structured code is used in order to improve readability.
• A lighter and more segmented source code : presentation (CSS, XSLT...) is separate from content (XHTML, HTML, XML...) to facilitate the work between developers and web designers. In a lot of cases, it permits substantial bandwidth economies.
• A better search engine indexing
• Simplified maintenance and adaptability : graphic modifications are easier to apply thanks to stylesheets (css).
• An improved code readability
• An increased accessibility : web documentes are better interpreted by alternatives browser such as text browser or braille browser.
• Compatibility with future web browsers : modern browser are going to be more respectful of web standards, then it's necessary to respect it.

Why I chose sandards ?

When you see all theses advantages, it's logical to follow theses W3C specification. Thanks to this, it far more easier to create and to maintain websites. As an html / xhtml / css integrator and web designer, this choice is more than perennial ; it's a necessity !

Here is a list of others standards...