The Struggle For Web Development Standards

Slide 1: The struggle for standards Chris Heilmann, Coder’s Saturday, Montreal, March 2008

Slide 2: Most high-quality development is about standards.

Slide 3: If you hire a plumber, he’ll use pipes, fittings and screws that are following an industry standard.

Slide 4: ... if not, you have caught a cowboy that will hurt your house and your wallet.

Slide 5: Plumbers and other handymen are people we can learn from.

Slide 6: Imagine plumbers would have to work like web developers.

Slide 7: “We want some plumbing done, you know the sort other houses have.”

Slide 8: “Don’t make it too expensive though, so it’d be nice if you can re-use this rusty old leaky bit of pipe here.”

Slide 9: “I see that you charge more if you have to bring your own tools, so you can use ours. We got this army knife, and some old screwdrivers.”

Slide 10: Web development should follow standards.

Slide 11: However, there is a problem - we have none.

Slide 12: The W3C gives us recommendations.

Slide 13: The browser vendors apply a lot of poetic license in following them.

Slide 14: Consortium decisions like the ones in the W3C take time.

Slide 15: Web development changes very rapidly.

Slide 16: So it is actually up to us to make up standards that work for us.

Slide 17: HTML and CSS are great to create hyperlinked and pretty documents.

Slide 18: They fall short when it comes to defining applications.

Slide 19: Even pages are moving away from the old web model.

Slide 20: See what people do...

Slide 21: Canvas Module Page Module Module Module

Slide 22: CSS cascades and JavaScript is more global than it should be.

Slide 23: Each of these modules are meant to work in isolation and get an own look and feel.

Slide 24: Most of the time the interaction model is also changed.

Slide 25: Server Page Page Page Page States change and user agents + browsers record the changes

Slide 26: Canvas Server Module Server Module Module Server Module Server

Slide 27: User agents so far don’t help us at all.

Slide 28: So let’s not bother with the “standards”, right?

Slide 29: Well...

Slide 30: A standard, or even a recommendation is much more than a guideline how to do things.

Slide 31: It is a contract between professionals how to solve a certain requirement.

Slide 32: It is a chance to save money.

Slide 33: It affects all aspects of our jobs.

Slide 34: Hiring. Pricing. Allocating. Estimates. Career progression.

Slide 35: If there is one thing that web developers have done right so far, then it is this:

Slide 36: Never give up - make the best of what you have been dealt.

Slide 37: So it is up to us to either abandon the few standards we managed to get to a good support state...

Slide 38: ...or to open up and redirect the determination we show in defending standards to expand our horizons.

Slide 39: Things not to do:

Slide 40: Take a recommendation as a god-given law.

Slide 41: Solve all problems with technologies we are familiar with.

Slide 42: Sell our skills as an expert knowledge.

Slide 43: Things to do:

Slide 44: Sell recommended technologies as a problem solver.

Slide 45: Use the right technology for the job and analyze the overlapping areas.

Slide 46: Standardize the ways to talk to other technologies.

Slide 47: Understand the limitations and problems of other technologies.

Slide 48: Share and communicate.

Slide 49: Show genuine interest in why certain decisions were made.

Slide 50: Produce and share evidence why following a standard makes a lot of sense.

Slide 51: A great example: SWFObject!

Slide 52: <script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script> <div id="flashcontent"> <p> Movie of a cute kitten, if you can see this you don’t have Flash installed. You can download the movie though: <a href=”kitten.mpg”> Playful Kitten (MPG, 3MB) </a> </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> var so = new SWFObject("movie.swf", "mymovie", "400", "200", "8", "#336699"); so.write("flashcontent"); </script>

Slide 53: Another example: Safari extensions to CSS

Slide 54: The iPhone does not support animation and mobile connections tend to charge money for traffic.

Slide 55: By adding the ability to round corners and animate in CSS, you can still create engaging interfaces.

Slide 56: Thanks! chris.heilmann@gmail.com http://wait-till-i.com