Web
Since I spend so much time fiddling with web pages, it seemed appropriate to give the hobby a page on my site. Websites I've created are for my own fun and education, but a few also benefit groups that I'm involved with. The idea is to learn, share and make information readily available.
The sites integrate everything I have learned to date relating to:
- Standards-compliant and validated HTML and CSS
- Consistent rendering in IE6, 7 and 8, Firefox 2 and 3, Apple Safari, Google Chrome and Opera 9
- User-centered design and navigation, including accessibility, mobility, file size and server load considerations
- User-selectable styles, CSS Sprites, Server Side Includes, site search, and minimal Javascript
Sites
- Ukiah Host Lions Club (UkiahLions.com) supports the club members and also provides information to the community.
- Greater Ukiah Area Modified Rotisserie League, AKA GUAMRL, (GUAMRL.com) is a Fantasy Baseball League that meets every three weeks during Major League Baseball's season.
- MountainWest Motorsports (MWMRacing.com) is an online sim-racing team that has been racing since 1997. The site integrates a message board.
- Western States Racing League (WSRLRacing.com) is an online sim-racing league that has been online since fall of 1999. I began working on the site in July of '09.
Blah, Blah
I created my first page in 1999 using the free hosting provided by my ISP and a copy of Microsoft FrontPage. Creating a site using the GUI interface, I had no idea what I was doing. It would be several years before I would even learn what HTML was, much less understand that there were standards for its use. By that time, the pages I'd created were excellent examples of "Tag Soup" and looked completely different depending on the browser. So I began my search for "Best Practices".
Since that time I've learned enough to know that I've only scratched the surface. I've worked to develop a better understanding of standards and considerations for creating consistently rendered web pages because I want the pages to look the same for the audience, regardless of their computer, browser or screen size.
For a time I shifted to using XHTML. It helps standardize a lot, including the requirement for lower case tags and attributes, quoted attribute values, required closing tags and slashes to end stand-alone tags. In my opinion, these are good because they force good habits. But I didn't stick with it and switched back to strict HTML 4.01 in 2007 because I simply didn't need XHTML.
In July of 2009 the W3C announced that it was ending work on XHTML 2 and focusing resources on HTML 5, along with the upcoming CSS 3 standard. This has caused a lot of confusion and anxiety in the web development world, but hopefully will allow the browser makers to focus on better support and a higher quality experience for users.
Today, I code the HTML and CSS by hand in Notepad ++, validate everything and visually check browers manually. I also create all of the graphics and designs for the sites, too. But I'm not an artist, so there's a long way to go in that arena...
Inspration, Sources and References
- CSS Zen Garden
- A List Apart
- CSS Play
- meyerweb.com
- SimpleBits
- Matthew James Taylor
- 456 Berea Street
- Smashing Magazine
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- The Web Standards Project
- HTML Validator
- CSS Validator
- Section 508
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- HTML5