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We all know the web is quite a new medium, and in its current state is maybe around 14 to 15 years old. Can you think about the cinema or for that matter television when they are around 14-15 years? There are four essential pillars of the web designing namely valid code, accessible code, semantically correct code and separation of content and presentation. Each one of the four essentialities is not a complete solution in itself instead each of them together or collectively contributes for perfect and complete web designing.

Most of the products when manufactured are done with certain standards. And all the standards that are made or exist are there for a reason and it would highly unprofessional to ignore them. All the web pages whenever designed should invariably go through a validation test process following the W3C HTML validation service although there are a few web pages that are not able to clear these tests. If your web page is really not validating then there has to be some major reason for the same.

The site should at any point be easily accessible. Accessibility problem is majorly caused because of the discrepancies in the basics. Some of the most common ones would be that the title and the header should always contain the description about the specific page that is being displayed, the website should not only be accessible by the mouse but for surely by the keyboard as well, use the ALT for all the images and the SUMMARY for the tables in your web page, SUMMARY is quite similar to ALT tag which is used to describe the images and many more. Basically it is not difficult to achieve what we call the factor of accessibility it definitely requires certain efforts but surely saves a lot of agony to quite a many users. Therefore it is always advisable to make a positive contribution to the web by being World Wide.

We have often read that the code should be semantically correct and structured. But there has always been a major issue in the basic understanding about the semantics. Semantics basically refers to the relationships between symbols and signs and what they collectively mean. Every symbol or tag or sign that is being used in the HTML code should be able to depict or represent the correct meaning what it is actually meant to perform rather than just being interpreted as something else. For example, when using the <TITLE> it should describe the title of that particular page rather than displaying the title of the entire website, similarly the headers <h1> to <h6> should be used to chunk down your document into meaningful pieces rather than anything else.

Separation of content and presentation literally means that the HTML does not include any presentation markup which means that it contains nothing which should actually describe as to how it looks. All the instructions related to how it looks are included in the CSS. There are a lot of benefits of this approach wherein there is increased bandwidth, improved accessibility, faster download and allows the developers to work on the sites independently and concurrently. All these four pillars are the basic and the most important factors that should always be considered while designing the website.

Cross browser compatibility can be well stated as compatibility of any given website with all the major browsers available such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Safari, Opera and JAWS. It is a very common feature that your ideal version of the site is not able to create a pixel perfect replication in all the browsers. A website designer always writes the code considering any particular web browser, most commonly internet explorer; as a result a website may be working fine with one browser but not supporting the other browsers the same way. Therefore it is very important that each website owner should always test for the cross browser compatibility of their respective websites.

Although you may be having your own preference for a browser but the visitors for your website may not be using the same web browser as you. This is where the cross browser compatibility makes all the difference. Cross browser compatibility mainly deals with the functionality of the website and not with how it would look like. Infact, it has very little to do with browsers as well and can be well stated as multi user agent compatibility. When we refer to the term compatibility here, we do not mean looks and behaves identically; instead here it typically means that it performs equivalently under alternative conditions.

Functionality is simply the absolute key to cross browser compatibility. A lack of cross browser compatibility does not mean that the site looks different on all the different types of browsers but it simply means that the site doesn’t work on all the other browsers except for one, for which it has been designed. It is entirely possible though occasionally, to make two browsers renders a same design, but only on a condition that you make certain factors such as the user settings constant. Everything would just go out of the window if you try to tamper with those settings. It is always desirable to make the designs of your website as similar as possible between various browsers, but at the same time it is quite important to understand that there are always certain limitations to it.

It is very important to take certain factors into consideration which designing any website which would aid in cross browser compatibility. Firstly, it is very important to use only standard compliant coding. The HTML tags and features used while coding should not be browser specific. As these would only work in those browsers that they have been created for and can even lead to breakage of the web page when viewed in any other browser. Always remember to validate all your web pages which include the HTML or XHTML coding and cascading style sheets using the free validation service from W3C.

There is nothing much that can be done to keep a similar view across all the different browsers, instead you should try and guarantee something which is achievable, i.e. an equivalent view for all. Equivalent here means that the users should be able to get the similar information and also use the website to perform similar functions. Our main goal with cross browser compatibility is to make the website viewable in all major browsers and at the same time have the pages rendered correctly. Always remember that a website that doesn’t work in any choice o browser will surely drive the visitors away.

Since its evolution, the HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) has been revised and upgraded a number of times in order to make the World Wide Web a better place to live virtually. HTML is a derivative of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), but its major flaw is that it is not extensible. Thus HTML is not appropriate for deployment under a network environment.

So, the World Wide Web Consortium (popularly known as W3C) decided to develop a new breed of extensible language and came up with XML, which stands for eXtensible Markup Language. Web developers use XML to dynamically describe the information stored on a web page. Though XML, the new generation web pages describes themselves which is helpful to gain good rankings in search engine listings and help the developers to write codes for custom search tools.

• XML shall be straightforwardly usable over the Internet.
• XML shall support a wide variety of applications.
• XML shall be compatible with SGML.
• It shall be easy to write programs that process XML documents.
• The number of optional features shall be kept to the absolute minimum, ideally zero.
• XML documents shall be human-legible and reasonably clear.
• The XML design should be prepared quickly.
• The design of XML shall be formal and concise.
• XML documents shall be easy to create.
• Terseness in XML markup is of minimal importance.

(Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/)

XML is referred as a Metalanguage which describes other languages. It is called so because XML allows the web developers to create documents which describes themselves to their reader. Though the XML tags look like the HTML ones, the main difference between the two is that the HTML documents do not tell the web browser how to display the web page. On the other hand, the XML documents are downloaded by the web browser along with a style sheet or Document Type definition (DTD) which guides the web browser on how to display the web page.

In its raw form, an XML document looks like the HTML and SGML documents, but all are functionally different. The main difference between the HTML and XML coding is that the XML tags are very rigid. For example; the HTML language has tags which have a closing and which don’t have a closing section. But in XML either all the tags must exist in pair or announce to the reader that a closing tag is not present.

For example: in HTML you can use <BR> tag without having to close it, but in XML you have to use it as <BR>…</BR> or simply as <BR/> which announces that there is no closing tag for BR.

Another prominent difference between the two languages is that the XML requires all the tag attribute values to be enclosed within quotation marks. For example:

<font color=red>……</font>, this is wrong in XML. It should be like <font color=”red”>…….</font>

HTML can be classified into two categories namely SGML based HTML (traditional) pitted against XML based HTML (also called XHTML) and the second one being a strict versus transitional versus frameset. In this article, the former has been described in detail.

One notable difference between the traditional version and XHTML is the technical distinction between the two of them. However, Inspite of all the modifications being done, the root element name “HTML” has been kept the same. The area which requires loads of effort is the one where the limitations of XML start showing in comparison to the more complex SGML inspite of the W3C intended HTML 4.01 being identical to XHTML 1.0. Due to the similarity quotient between HTML and XHTML, they are documented in parallel at many times.

The difference between an XHTML 1.0 document and an HTML 4.01 document is mostly syntactic in each of the corresponding DTDs except for the different opening declarations applicable for the document. There are many shortcuts which XHTML does not allow but HTML allows because of the underlying syntax. Be it elements with optional opening or closing tags, empty elements not having an end tag, all these are examples of the shortcuts that a user can take advantage of in HTML. HTML requires all elements to have an opening tag or a closing tag.

After contemplating on the whole process, the developers of XHTML have also come out with a shortcut. The opening and closing of an HTML tag has to be done within the same tag but a slash (/) can be added before the closing of the tag. For demonstration of the concept, let us take this example: <avi/>, where “<” is the opening tag and “>” the closing tag, “avi” is a fictitious HTML tag and as mentioned above, the slash (/) comes before the tag is closed.

To properly understand the minute differences between HTML and XHTML, the tips listed below need to be kept in mind:

. XHTML makes use of XML’s built in language defining functionality attribute. The language for an element should be specified with a lang attribute rather than the XHTML attribute.
. The XML namespace has to be removed as HTML does not have a provision for namespaces.
. The document type declaration has to be changed from XHTML 1.0 to HTML 4.01.
. The empty-element syntax of an XML has to be developed into a style empty element of an HTML.

A technically well constructed XHTML document will always follow all the syntax requirements of XML. The structure of a document is thoroughly described by the content of XHTML and legitimate documents will religiously follow its specified data.

To migrate easily between HTML and XHTML, several conventions have been recommended by the W3C and by meticulously following these guidelines, a user will be able to easily interpret the document as HTML or XHTML. The XHTML 1.0 documents that have been made compatible in this way are permitted by the W3C to be served either as HTML or as XHTML.

World Wide Web Consortium, popularly known as W3C is an international organization which formulates policies and lays down the standards for World Wide Web (WWW or W3). W3C is in fact a consortium where all its members work together towards the development of WWW standards.

Why W3C was formed?

W3C was formed by Tim Berners-Lee in October 1994. It was created to develop universal standards for developing HTML documents. Before the evolution of the consortium, every vendor was providing a different version of HTML documents. This lead to web page incompatibilities and the purpose of Internet (that everybody should be connected) was getting into somber. Thus, there was an immediate need to standardize the process of web site creation. Now a days W3C develops interoperable technologies, specifications, guidelines, software and tools with an aim to enhance and utilize the web in a best manner.

W3C Members:

W3C is an international organization having a large number of members who are dedicated to manage and design the specifications for web. These efforts are made in order to ensure that people form different backgrounds and cultures can access the utilize the web easily. W3C is hosted by three universities:

1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.
2) The French National Research Institute, Europe
3) Keio University, Japan

There is no individual or a single organization or a group of organizations which own W3C. Every member of the consortium holds equally important position. Some of the well known members of this consortium are IBM, Microsoft, America On Line (AOL), Apple, Adobe, Macromedia, Sun Microsystems and much more which includes a large number of software vendors, content providers, telecommunications companies, corporate users, networking companies, international carriers like AT&T, academic institutions, research laboratories, government bodies, electronics and hardware companies etc. In total, there are 425 members of W3C till date (June 2008).

Goals of World Wide Web Consortium or W3C:

As mentioned above, the W3C is continuously engaged in the development of standards for the web. These standards are developed keeping in mind certain long term objectives. Following are the goals which form the basis of the standards developed by W3C:

1) Web for Everyone: W3C believes in non-discrimination and aims at giving equal opportunities to all the human beings irrespective of their caste, sex, religion, and their social and ethnic values. Thus, this consortium lays down some standards which make the web pages easily accessible to all the people.
2) Web on Everything: With the growth of telecom sector and communications technology now apart from the PC, there are a large number of devices which can support internet surfing. W3C develops standards and protocols to support the internet on these kinds of devices such as PDAs, Smart phones, Tablets etc.
3) Knowledge Base: W3C aims at enhancing the web content and its processing via databases and scripts so that people can use the internet as a useful knowledge source.
4) Trust and Confidence: W3C also lays down the standards for internet security and privacy so that people can confidently involve into activities like e-commerce.

Apart from creating the new ones, W3C also updates its existing standards whenever required and it is recommended that the web developers conform to these standards while creating HTML documents.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) was developed in the year 1991. This language is used to write scripts to construct the Web pages. Though, today we have a lot of tools that are used for scripting to help in web designing the history of HTML goes back to 1991 when this was the only language for scripting to develop a Web page. The language could also be used to share documents online. This idea of sharing documents and pages was proposed by Tim Berners Lee. He is still eulogized for introducing HTML tags, which were responsible for initiating the Internet ride, ultimately helping in better communication. Initially, 22 elements were introduced in HTML, out of which 9 elements have been frozen due to upgradation. Now, we have the fourth version of HTML, which is referred to as HTML Four. The initial version of HTML Four consists of 13 elements.

HTML has its origin from SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). SGML is a little heavy on the technical side, but it’s good to know it because it initiated the whole project of W3-World Wide Web. An SGML is usually described as a Meta language, which gives you the liberty to make use of a range of markup languages. Initially, when HTML originated, SGML tagging was used in the basic HTML, however, in the advanced stages, SGML tagging was not given any preference, as HTML could never be an appropriate SGML document.

If you wish to learn the HTML scripting, it can be learned easily and is very interesting. Continuing with the history, Lee HTML was withdrawn and a new HTML was created by the IETF. This was described as the HTML working group, which brought about a formation of HTML 2.0 version. For a difference 2.0 is the version number, which is given to this. But this 2.0 is not up to the mark for the development of a web environment, which is suitable to everyone and gives a better result. This addition requires some changes. Earlier in this 2.0 version changes were done under the guidance of IETF. In 2000 a version was released by W3C that is well known, as it possess those international standards the same as version 4.0. Presently HTML 5.0 is in demand in the market. HTML has come a long way since 1991 and it has launched many versions in the past years and from every version users have received something new to exhibit. When HTML came up with its final version, users found this version more easily applicable as compared to any other programming language, which is used for web designing.

Yesterday while surfing the net, an unusual observation made me wonder a few things. I marveled at how easily communication can be established now and our data transferred. What used to take something like ages in the past is now done in minutes. With technology growing rapidly, people seem to have been able to make things simpler for everyone to grasp. Definitely getting information, being able to communicate with a pal somewhere and also applying for a job has become easier thanks to the net. But have you ever wondered what/who masterminded this? Well programming and the answer is as simple as that. It’s the human mind which is the center for such easy communication and no miracle thankfully.

When Tim-Berners Lee wished to share documents between two computers, he did a small programming and created a language which enabled him to share the documents. This language, he called HTML tags which were but simple designs then. With time, the HTML drafts by Lee and his team faded away. IETF a new team on the block, worked on these dead drafts and got a whole new HTML developed which became the version 2.0. This version was made in the year 1995. Over the years from 1991 to 1995 a whole team worked day and night to come up with something good for technology. But version 2.0 was not the end of HTML.

During the period between the version 2.0 and the building of the other versions a request was sent by IETF for comments on various factors like form based file upload, client side image maps, tables and internationalization. All this was given to the IETF in the year 2000. A certain Dave Raggett of the IETF, came up with the version 3.0 which contained all the elements mentioned in his proposal like tables, text flow around figures, and the display of complex mathematical elements. At the time it came into existence, it was too complicated from implementation point of view and so nobody took the project ahead. But the interesting fact is that instead of proposing a 3.1 version, a 3.2 version was proposed and many of the features of version 3.0 were removed due to the complexity.

Now at the time when 3.2 came into existence, IETF had closed down and it became officially declared by the W3C. After this straight away HTML 4.0 came into existence in the year 1997. This version contained certain flavors which were strict, transitional and frameset. It adopted browser specific attributes and removed some that were of no use. In 1998 the version 4.0 was re-released with some minor additions. This version too contained the same flavors but had some more additions. Version 4.01 came into existence in the year 1999. The latest version released in 2008 is the version 5.0. This shows that HTML has particularly undergone a lot many changes in the period of 17 years. It has survived in spite of its initial dismissal.

HTML better known as Hyper Text Markup Language is a tool for writing scripts to develop web pages. It has come a long way since it came into existence for the first time in 1991.

Web designing does still use HTML but it is not the only language used for scripting. A quick glance at the history of HTML will tell you that HTML was the first language used for scripting to build a web page. It was the start language for sharing documents online. The brain behind the idea for developing a system to share documents and pages was Tim-Berners Lee. This name is still famous for the HTML tags which started the internet tour and helped make communication easier. The HTML tags consisted of a simple design for HTML. The 22 elements that were introduced in the HTML then have lost some 9 elements on its way to upgradation. The fourth version of the HTML named HTML four consists of 13 elements of the first version.

HTML is inspired from the SGML language which is Standard Generalized Markup Language. Though a little technical it is definitely good to understand SGML because it started up the whole project of W3-World Wide Web. A SGML is normally termed as a metalanguage where you are free to use various markup languages. In the basic HTML too SGML tagging was used in the initially stages but later HTML never came up to be a proper SGML document and it was preferred not to use SGML tagging any further. Upgradation did not support the SGML. Right now if you go in for programming HTML scripting is considered a baby and anyone is able to learn it. But the Lee HTML disappeared in the wind and a new HTML was created by the IETF. This HTML was the HTML working group which concluded to be the HTML 2.0 version. Now here is where we get the standard HTML on which further upgradation to make it better were made. Not many of us are aware of this history, but it is certainly interesting. Well as a matter of fact you should also know that there was no HTML 1.0 as such. There were some previous HTML and its drafts which were different from the HTML 2.0. To create the difference a version number was given and what is better then 2.0. For better results and develop a web environment suitable to all, the version 2.0 was not sufficient. Some additions were needed in this version. So additions, changes and more such work was done on the version 2.0 under the guidance of IETF for this. The version released in 2000 by the W3C is known to have an international standard which was the version 4.0. The current version running in the markets is HTML 5.0. HTML has come a long way since its inception in 1991. A lot many versions have been developed since its initial dismissal and each version found something new to exhibit to the users. The final version has made things user friendly and people definitely find HTML easier to use then any other programming language for the web designing.