Chapter 1. Coding the Front End

Advocates of Web standards tend to be passionate, but far from unanimous. Disagreement is nothing new. The concept of “Web standards-based” Web sites means different things to different people. Web standards is the subject of many an argument online, and, to some, almost a religious crusade. This is in part because there are many myths that surround Web standards. To those who think they know what Web standards are all about, it’s important to filter truth from all the noise.

The most important aspects of Web standards-based Web sites are the separation of content and structure (HTML or XHTML) from presentation (CSS) and behavior (JavaScript). These key characteristics are by far the most critical ones, and will ...

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