HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Okay, that wasn't bad; now
we're telling the browser
we're standard HTML.
Jim:
Yeah, really easy. But also
a little anticlimactic…we put this
doctype at the top of our file to tell
the browser our page is HTML, but so
what? Nothing really changes.
Frank:
Right, nothing you can see changes, but it
does communicate to the browser that we're using
standard HTML. And the browser can use that
information to its (and our) advantage. Plus, the boss
wanted us to be writing totally legit HTML, and for
that we need the doctype.
Jim:
Okay, is that it, then? Are we now writing
industry standard HTML?
Frank:
As far as I know, but this is where it gets
interesting. The one thing that can trip us up now
is errors we might have introduced into the page. Say
we forgot a closing tag? Or had a typo in a tag name?
Jim:
Oh right, well, wouldn't we know it if we did?
Frank:
Not necessarily; the browser is pretty good at
winging it when it sees errors.
Jim:
How about I get the guys together, and we do a review
of the entire page?
Frank:
You may not need to…there are tools out there to help validate
the page.
Jim:
Validate?
Frank:
Right, to go through the page and make sure all the markup is
valid. Make sure we're keeping to the standard. It's a bit like a spell checker
for HTML.
Jim:
Sounds like a good idea. Where do we get these tools?
Frank:
The standards guys over at the W3C have a validator, and it's free.
Jim:
Great, let's do it.
