From HTML to XHTML
As is typical of me, I have decided to do a complete redesign of the Web site (not the blog). I have recently discovered the Style Guide for the Branch Libraries of the New York Public Library, which is an apprehensive guide for markup and design requirements.
When HTML first appeared, frames were a common design element. Today, nobody will dare to use frames anymore (I have abandoned them a while ago). When I read the Style Guide, I realized that the HTML tags I was using were slowly becoming dated as well. I decided to clean up the coding, and then, why not, clean up the entire design.
I have already worked with CSS style sheets before, but in today’s Web design it plays an even more significant part. No more font tags, copy formatting is done through CSS. No more invalid extensions to the body tag, background color is set with CSS. There is much more control over design and format through CSS, resulting in a more similar look in different Web browsers.
Another new item was closing open-ended tags such as the image and break tags. And of course paragraphs need to be closed as well. Lest we forget, lowercase all tags and quote all values! This all makes for a much cleaner coding.
I have attached a small teaser image with the groundwork for the design. I think it makes for a much more interesting home page that is easier to navigate. No more roundabout way of finding what you need, functionality rules this design.
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