This excellent article on Wikipedia,Eolas – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, explains the patent, the litigation, the browser changes and provides links to Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, SWFObject, and ActiveX scripts and workarounds to try to deal with the issue.
WCAG 2.0 Quick Reference
The W3C did not gain fame as a source of easy reading. The complaints about the WCAG 2.0 draft being really hard to read have been flying through the air for weeks. Now the W3C has issued the WCAG 2.0 Quick Reference. It still seems complex, but perhaps this is a step in the direction of making sense of it all. After a swift glance through it, one of my worries is that the software the average designer uses to create web content makes complying with some of these guidelines difficult.
Technorati Tags: web design, accessibility, usability, web standards
Tagging goes mainstream
Well, yeah, us geeky types use tags at technorati and geeky places like that. But look at what I saw today when I was checking out the new Alejandro Escovedo album at amazon.com:
The concept of tagging content for meaning takes a whole new leap when Amazon starts doing it. My, my, change is blowing in the wind.
Tip: What is semantic markup and why should you care?
The word semantic gets tossed around a lot in connection with web design. A comment from someone made me realize I had overlooked discussing what that means here on Web Teacher. I use the word logical quite often instead, although I am not in a majority by talking about the logic of HTML tags as relating to sematics.
To me, however, HTML is simple because it’s logical. You can learn the majority of what you need to know about HTML in just a few hours. (It’s CSS that mortifies with its learning curve.) If text is meant to be a heading, there is a semantic (or logical) tag to create a heading element: h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6. Creating a bit of text that is big and bold and merely looks like a heading in a computer monitor is not the same thing. Why? Because the heading element carries the semantic meaning “this is a heading” as part of the markup. And that meaning attaches to the text no matter where or how the text is accessed: a computer monitor, a screen reader, a handheld, a cell phone, a printer.
Another way to think about it is to realize that HTML tags are self-describing. The tag itself explains the logic or semantics of what it is meant to markup. p describes a paragraph. li describes a list item. cite describes a citation. strong describes strong empahsis. See how that works?
Using the tags to create semantic meaning makes your content usable in any Internet-capable device with the logical organization carried with it.
In the move to separate content from presentation (or meaning from appearance) the first requirement is solidly structured semantic HTML. CSS can do literally anything with appearance, as long as there is a logical structure to the content that will hold up no matter how the content is styled. Without the proper HTML semantic underpinning for your content, no amount of CSS can make your page work in multiple Internet-capable devices.
In the world of semantic content, a table is used to display tabular data, a list is marked up as a list, indented text is only marked up as a blockquote when it actually is quoted material, text that needs emphasis is marked up as an em element, and so on through the logic of every HTML tag.
There is room for discussion about what element is semantically correct as markup for a certain bit of content. The lively discussions on topics about the best semantic markup for certain types of content at Simple Bits/Simple Quiz lead Simple Bits’ Dan Cederholm to write two excellent books about semantic markup: Web Standards Solutions
Technorati Tags: web design, accessibility, usability, CSS, web standards
Adactio: Journal – A tipping point for microformats
Jeremy Keith of Adactio Journal thinks we’ve reached A tipping point for microformats. And he has reasons.
Save the Internet : Fighting for Internet Freedom
A few days ago, I asked you to take action at Save the Internet : Fighting for Internet Freedom to preserve net neutrality. Over 800,000 signed petitions were presented to Congress from Save the Internet, yet the House just passed a bill approving the Cope Act, which allows companies like AT&T and Comcast to decide which web sites you can see or broadcast freely on the Internet. The House completely ignored the stated wishes of the people and gave the big money lobbyists exactly what they wanted. The passage of the Cope Act is a blatant example of the new style of American government: government of the greedy, by the greedy, for the greedy. If you didn’t act the first time, please go to the Save the Internet website and sign a petition before the vote comes up in the Senate. Thanks!
What is a mastery level technique?
At the behest of my former Sybex (now Wiley) publisher, I submitted a proposal for a new book, Mastering Integrated HTML and CSS. The proposal was approved, so I’m gearing up to start writing. It will be spring of 2007 before it comes out. In the meantime I may appear relatively scarce around here because I’ll have less time to think about anything but the schedule involved in getting a book done.
I’d love to know what HTML or CSS tips, techniques, habits, or ideas you consider mastery level. My first book was very definitely for beginners. There’s plenty of room to expand into advanced ideas. I emphasize not just HTML and CSS, but also standards, accessibility and usability, so I’d like to hear any ideas about mastery level topics in those areas, too.
The new book will include Instructor’s Resources such as a sample syllabus, skills and objectives, presentation slides and a test bank. I hope this is good news for the teachers out there.