6 December 2004
Web Standards and CSS Formatting
Today's discussion will be on web coding standards, which tend to generate almost as many religious battles as operating system choices.
We'll cover the HTML standards development process, existing HTML and XHTML standards, problems with existing standards, and browser support for standards. We'll also discuss the issues surrounding separation of presentation and content, and the importance of CSS in standards-based web development.
Readings on Web Standards
- Part I of Designing With Web Standards (pages 1-137)
- Fix Your Site With the Right DOCTYPE
- Why We Won't Help You
- Semantic Obsolescence
- The Business Benefits of Web Standards
Optional (added late):
Readings on Typography and CSS Formatting
- Chapters 9 and 13 of Designing With Web Standards (pages 211-233 and 299-326)
- Web Page Design for Designers: Typography
- A List Apart: Typography Matters
- A List Apart: The Trouble With EM 'n EN (and Other Shady Characters)
- The Noodle Incident: Sane Text Sizing
And a how-to for CSS text properties:
Keeping Up With Class Assignments
Because of the blended learning approach we're taking this quarter, I want to be sure that everybody understands exactly what I'm expecting of them in terms of attendance, participation, and deliverables. So here's a handy-dandy PDF that you can print and save, or simply view online whenever you'd like.
What it boils down to is (a) do the readings before Monday, (b) come to lecture and participate in discussions on Monday, (c) do the exercises for the week by Wednesday, or come to the studio session on Wednesday to work on them, (d) post to your weblog about lecture, readings, and exercises, and (e) make sure you complete and turn in your assignments (and link to them on your blog).
The PDF has longer versions of each of the above, as well as some tips for how to configure MovableType properly for class (enabling trackbacks, adding appropriate categories, etc).