Forum please explain this....

[jakenoble]

Hi All

Have been using this forum for a few days now, very useful, helped me with a fair few things.

But, I would like explained why there is so much emphysis on source code? I'm not saying there shouldn't be, so don't bite my head off.

I noticed a post the other day, "review my site", the sites appearance was dead good and it loaded a dream. But then the very 1st post said it was poor.

Is this mainly dus to compatability with old browsers?

Explain the obsession with Code, rather than the look?

I suppose this is a codng forum. opppps.

[Spookster]

You can have the most professional looking, prettiest, most well organized looking site on the planet.....but if you code it poorly and it only works properly in one version of one browser then not everybody will get to view in the way that it was intended so your efforts will have been for nothing.

[kansel]

This forum is General web building . We are building the web here. This is architecture. You can build the coolest looking house in the world, but if you build it with styrofoam and toothpicks it will blow away.

With the right tools you can build a good structure that still looks good. The emphasis on code validation in these forums is not so much an issue with older browsers as it is with newer browsers.

As browsers come out they will use better rendering engines that work with valid HTML/XHTML and CSS. Older sites with font tags, nested tables for design and other sins of the past may no longer work and webmasters might be in for massive redesigns if they are not prepared.

If older browsers are an issue, new code can still be used. There are several threads on this forum about getting new CSS-based designs to degrade gracefully in older browsers. Netscape Navigator 4 is probably the only older graphical browser that anyone in the world still cares about. It supports enough CSS that it is fairly easy to get a site to work in that dinosaur.

Anyone else please feel free to elaborate on this, or completely dis me. Following posts will probably be much more technical in nature.

[sweenster]

i think you summed things up perfectly with your "styrofoam and toothpicks" quote mate....

as for new coding techniques i've been converted. I was a <table> person and hated <div's> altogether. Now that i've learned to implement <div> with CSS the results are much better, less complicated and faster.

[oracleguy]

Originally posted by kansel
This forum is General web building . We are building the web here. This is architecture. You can build the coolest looking house in the world, but if you build it with styrofoam and toothpicks it will blow away.

I like that.

Writing good code is important because it also makes it less costly to make changes to the site. And just as important, if you write clean code it makes it easier for you to go back in a year and easily understand what you did or if someone else has to go back and work on it.

Just today I was helping someone decipher and debug some C# written by someone else a while ago and it was easier since they used good coding practices.

And another extra incentive is that if you have more compact code, it takes less data transfer for the client to see it which means you can get more visistors for less monthly server transfer.

Additionally, the more semantically and correct your code is, the easier it is for screen readers and other accessiblity tools to be used on your site.

[Vladdy]

Re: Forum please explain this....

Originally posted by jakenoble
<snip />
But, I would like explained why there is so much emphysis on source code? I'm not saying there shouldn't be, so don't bite my head off.

I noticed a post the other day, "review my site", the sites appearance was dead good and it loaded a dream. But then the very 1st post said it was poor.<snip />

Because auto-mechanics base their opinion of a car on whats under the hood, not how it looks on a calendar.......

[me']

Erm... CODING Forums?

[Basscyst]

Older sites with font tags, nested tables for design and other sins of the past may no longer work and webmasters might be in for massive redesigns if they are not prepared

Is this really true. I ask because my employer uses a CMS that produces horrific code using the font tag and other no no's. It would pose a good argument in our next confrence.

Basscyst

[Roy Sinclair]

Originally posted by Basscyst
Is this really true. I ask because my employer uses a CMS that produces horrific code using the font tag and other no no's. It would pose a good argument in our next confrence.

Basscyst

I wish it were true, sadly it's not going to be true for quite some time. The biggest reason is that's there's so much of that bad code out there any browser rejecting it would be looking at a severely reduced internet.

Right NOW though you already gain an advantage in page rankings in Google simply because a page not containing all the formatting code and using good semantic markup scores a lot higher in the all important search engine rankings simply because those pages have a higher signal (content) to noise (non-content) ratio.

Doing it the right way before your competitors gives you an advantage, wait until your competitors beat you to it and see your market diminish.