You Old Dog, You!
By Ian Lloyd | October 13th, 2003 | Filed in CSS, HTML/XHTML, Training
Skip to comment formWell, perhaps not that old – HTMLdog was launched last week and aims to put HTML and CSS training under people’s noses while not making a great song and dance about the standards compliance.
“The underlying philosophy behind this website is to focus standards-compliant HTML and CSS … but without making a big deal about it. The current way of learning HTML seems to be to learn it the old, non-standard hack way and then, if so inclined (which most probably wouldn’t be), to learn about standards at a later date. But I can’t see any reason not to teach standards compliant HTML and CSS from the bottom up without saying there’s anything special about it – it’s just the way it’s done.”
I think it’s true that for some people, if they find out that they are doing something the correct and agreed way (as in standards-based) then they may start to ask “Well, surely there is an easier way to do it?” and find themselves trying to cut corners using the old-school methods. If they’re not told that there’s another way, then maybe they won’t look elsewhere. It’s all somewhat academic, but I understand the thinking behind this.
The site splits the two disciplines (HTML and CSS) into three separate levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced) with each section then containing further topics such as, in the HTML advanced notes, Standards Recap, Accessible Links, Mastering Text, Mastering Tables, Accessible Forms
and Doctype Declarations.
Go take a sniff. Woof!