Re: langua= vs type=

Kimmo Laine wrote:
> Regardless of what major sites do, you need to do like the
> standards say, not like major sites do it.

Answer this: Why?

Maybe your answer is, if you code to the standards and validate, then you
can expect well-behaved browsers to handle your code correctly.

However, this isn't always the case. Sometimes, browser quirks need to be
taken advantage of. Sometimes you can add functionality to a site for older
browsers or even modern quirky browsers by 'hacking' the source, when the
browsers wouldn't have otherwise been able to handle the functionality using
the 'standards' approach.

There are certainly good arguments for validation and following standards.
In most cases, they are completely convincing and good advice. But you also
need to consider the 'big guys' and what they are doing. If they get more
hits than you can imagine, can hire the best people, can throw lots of money
at problems, and can make sites which offer advanced functionality in many
browsers, then maybe they ARE doing something right, even if their source
doesn't validate.

If you can enhance the user experience with functionality that one browser
has (say, IE) and others do not, but using this functionality causes the
source to not validate perfectly, then what would you be gaining by removing
the added functionality? Would you rather have it validate, but remove
functionality?

IMO, validation is a tool. Having source that validates is one of many goals
for a site. If the validation goal conflicts with another goal (such as
supporting older browsers, or supporting non-standard browser functionality)
then a decision needs to be made. People who blindly say the sites should
always validate are naive. IMO.

--
Matt Kruse
http://www.JavascriptToolbox.com
http://www.AjaxToolbox.com


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