Web Standards
Back in the day when I started fiddling with websites CSS2 had been just released and Internet Explorer had just come to life. Netscape was starting to loose the web browser battle and the lack of web standards forced those who wanted a decent layout to build it with tables, method that killed whichever semantic logic that could be asked by the creation process.
In September 2003 the last call working draft of CSS 2.1 was release and a year later Firefox appeared to change the way we would make websites.
Firefox was the first browser which successfully adapted CSS and finally the presentational structure of the website could be stripped out of the HTML of the site; it was then when I took the path of the semantic, standard compliant websites.
Now, all the web pages I built search to comply with the best practice web standards of the W3C, validating XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.1. aiming for a semantic code that puts content in first place to wrap the presentational elements around it.
I love to use the new CSS3 modules and I use them whenever I can in non-commercial projects for 2 reasons. The first being the fact that CSS3 hasn't been officially released and thus there's not a perfect support for across web browser. The second comes from my policy of keep developing for IE6, and thus making the introduction of CSS3 elements a problematic issue while I can get a similar effect by other means.
As soon as CSS3 is released and I can finally say bye-bye to IE6 I'll start using CSS3 in all my projects.
And finally the DOM which adds that pinch of interactivity that brings so much life into a website.
Cross-browser compatibility
As I type this words, the statistics of all the websites I currently manage show that, during the last month, Internet Explorer is used by 70% of visitors, Firefox by 23%, Safari by 5,22% followed by Chrome 1,10% and Opera 0,68%.
The problem comes when I break down IE's numbers: IE8 is used by 59%, IE6 by 21% and IE7 20%.
It seems contradictory, but IE7 has been smoothly replaced by IE8 as the OS is the same, but IE6, a browser that was released in 2001, is still going strong by all the XP users who refuse in upgrading in fear of Vista.
This becomes a problem because if math hasn't failed me again, IE6 is still used by 14% of all users, something tells me that most of them don't have a saying on the platform they use.
That's a chunk of visitors too big to simply dismiss.
That's why I support IE8, IE7 and IE6, plus all the standards-loving browsers Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome.
As a matter of fact, I develop with Firefox as a default browser and then adapt the layout to other problems that might arise in the older version of IE.
This means that IE6 users will, by all means, be able to access all information though the visual experience may be reduced where necessary, following progressive enhancement best-practice.
The Arsenal
Among the tools and technologies I use to create websites and other media are the following:
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- InDesign
- Flash
- XHTML & CSS
- DOM Scripting (jQuery)
- PHP & MySQL
- WordPress
- Expression Engine
- And other little dirty tricks to make your site awesome
