HTML Semantics
Semantics is one of the subjects that I’d really rather try and avoid, it just gets so picky and anal, you’re left wondering, what’s the point?
It is an important part of the whole Web Standards ethos though, if you’re keen on the idea of writing good, standards based code, you have to take some time to appreciate semantics.
Molly Holzschlag has just written a new article aimed at introducing people to this idea of using the correct tags for the correct things.
The Meaning of Semantics (Take I) is a brief intro to the world of semanitcs, what it means, and how it affects the code you write.
For anyone who’s been coding in the traditional tables layout style, and now looking at the wave of web standards take up, and thinking they’ed like to try it, reading an article like this can really help speed up the process of understanding where the benefit of those web standards come in for them.
Most of us are, or have been guilty of the examples Molly uses in the article. I know I certainly have been! Even when I started learning and using Web Standards. It’s quite common to see people start to learn to use CSS, but not actually really produce any more efficient code until they get further down the road and realise a few things about how they are writing code.
I’ve really enjoyed seeing some of those “I Get It” moments from various people, when they suddenly get hit by the power of what this style of coding can actually bring them.
Then of course they get hit by IE’s rendering problems and go back to grumbling again, but it’s nice while it lasts 