So I'm attempting to teach Web Authoring this semester to a wide range of students, and by wide range, I mean their knowledge ranges from beginner to coder.
At any rate, one of the texts for this course is Jeffery Zeldman and Ethan Marcotte's Designing with Web Standards. I have read the introduction and the first chapter and the authors continue to discuss the forward compatibility of websites if designers adhere to the standards that have been set forth by W3C and other standard bodies. They argue that designing with these standards will "ensure that sites so designed will continue to work in tomorrow's browsers and devices, including devices not yet built or even imagined" (32).
I'm sorry, but I have been around since the beginning of the Web and I find it hard to believe that the design standards we are using today will work without doubt in technology we haven't even imagined as of yet. The authors themselves discuss how even today many designers are still using hacked code in an effort to remain backward compatible. What makes the authors believe that the standards chosen today will continue to work into the future? I might have bought the argument if they had not made so bold a claim as to state that these same standards will work in things not yet imagined.
While the class is not required to read the entire text, I plan on it. I look forward to knowing their reactions to this weeks readings, but especially to this claim of forward compatibility, and I look forward to learning how the authors believe this will happen.
At any rate, one of the texts for this course is Jeffery Zeldman and Ethan Marcotte's Designing with Web Standards. I have read the introduction and the first chapter and the authors continue to discuss the forward compatibility of websites if designers adhere to the standards that have been set forth by W3C and other standard bodies. They argue that designing with these standards will "ensure that sites so designed will continue to work in tomorrow's browsers and devices, including devices not yet built or even imagined" (32).
I'm sorry, but I have been around since the beginning of the Web and I find it hard to believe that the design standards we are using today will work without doubt in technology we haven't even imagined as of yet. The authors themselves discuss how even today many designers are still using hacked code in an effort to remain backward compatible. What makes the authors believe that the standards chosen today will continue to work into the future? I might have bought the argument if they had not made so bold a claim as to state that these same standards will work in things not yet imagined.
While the class is not required to read the entire text, I plan on it. I look forward to knowing their reactions to this weeks readings, but especially to this claim of forward compatibility, and I look forward to learning how the authors believe this will happen.
RSS Feed
