Grex Web Conference

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Grex Web Item 1: Welcome to the Web Conference, Version 2.0
Entered by remmers on Tue Feb 13 22:36:30 UTC 2007:

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#18 of 19 by madmike on Tue Sep 30 18:00:54 2008:

CSS is no doubt the way to go in web design for a whole host of 
reasons. The keyword is XML. XML (or extensable markup language) is 
poised to be the backbone of digital communications. At least XML is 
the key to cross platform compatability and diverse content delivery 
systems now and into the future. Adopting a 'standards based' aproach 
to web design helps to 'future proof' your web pages and sites. 

The beauty of Cascading Style Sheets is all your styling and layout 
information is carried 'outboard' of your all-important content. This 
way if the browser of the future does some really wierd things to the 
design of your site you can write a browser specific stylesheet to 
accomodate 'who-knows-what' and by testing for browser type you can 
custom deliver said CSS. Your content can then be routed to whoever 
needs/wants it; Firefox here, screen reader there, cellphone over 
younder, Morse code generater or jumbo-tron just beyond that hill - 
nobody knows.

The power behind XML - the way I view it - is:
combine two of the most basic elements of the computer. 

1. ASCII text delivered in 
2. hierarchally organized format.

You pass it on or you take it in... what the other guy does with it is 
pretty much up to him. Of course this assumes that what you are 
delivering is information in the form of words - but remember those 
words could also be computer language in search of processing.

ANYWAY...  as for RTFM... There is a book that really opened my eyes to 
this whole 'standards based' XML way of looking at the web. I strongly 
recommend, Jeffery Zeldman's - "Designing With Web Standards". I found 
it at the library but I'm sure it is worth whatever price Amazon has 
for it. Once you start utilizing the stuff he's talking about you will 
look back on your past web designing efforts and most likely feel silly.

Don't get me wrong, standards based design (XHTML strict) is not for 
the faint of heart, but starting down that road by learning the power 
and beauty of CSS is sure to reward you in ways you have yet to 
conceive.