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Write HTML Like It's 1999

bradleytaunt.com

141–150 of 191 posts

Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999

#142
post #138

As someone who has a pretty serious visual impairment, I find the attitude of so many of these comments really... disappointing. You wouldn't believe how much effort people with poor vision have to go to, to consume the modern web. You can't even take simple things for granted like being able to zoom. So many websites pollute their page with pointless navigation elements that block most of the content when the page i…

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I'd like to throttle the first person who ever decided that if the window width would not 'comfortably' accommodate their vision of the page, certain elements would just DISAPPEAR. Like GONE. When you have to zoom out to make hidden elements (not just hanging off the edge, as in never drawn) appear... someone has been naughty.

Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All they do is complain, make special demands, then go on to block ads anyway. It makes it hard to care about those users.

Seems that ad-blocking has made ads worse.

It's called an arms race for a reason

Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999

#144

My God that page is beautiful. Over half the vertical space is content without me touching anything. No banner bar asking me to install some bullshit mobile app. No 800-pixel panel at the bottom telling me what a cookie is. No incredibly obnoxious warning that I only have one more free article before the wisdom of the ages is lost to me so I'd better cough up five bucks.

Looks great on my 900x1600 monitor... portrait just like the content I read. Using a tall not wide monitor makes reading more fun than watching movies! Mom would be proud.

Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999

#145

I hope there will be a return to simple web pages where HTML is used for content, not apps. That’s the way the web was intended. Web assembly is nice and all, but it does smell an awful lot like Java applets in 1997. Proprietary, slow and hard to grok.

I'm interested in hearing what is proprietary about wasm? It's a standard[1] implemented in most browsers.

[1]: https://www.w3.org/TR/wasm-core-1/

Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999

#146
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I find zero value in using ul/li's for lists that aren't bulleted Browsers don't care. You may not care either. But people with disabilities attempting to make sense of your website do, very much so. There's absolutely no reason __not__ to use semantic HTML, and many reasons to do so.

Are you suggesting you can't write accessible Web applications without using semantic HTML?

I mean you can, off course, write accessible HTML without semantic HTML. Just remember to:

* Set the correct aria attributes and roles for assistive technologies.

* Make the correct elements focusable, and order the focus correctly between elements, and add a specific style when then element is in focus.

* Capture the focus when appropriate but still allow focus to the URL bar.

* Set the correct key event handlers for keyboard navigation, submit events and triggers, validation events, etc. for assistive technologies, etc.

* Be prepared to warn users that your site will not work without javascript or in reader modes or in text based browsers, as well as make your site somewhat inaccessible for bots and crawlers.

And I’m sure I’m forgetting something. Point is, it is possible, but really hard.

Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999

#147

While I agree that semantic HTML is a nice thing, I am also confused because the HTML I saw in 1999 didn't look like what the author suggests. If I am not completely mistaken, nav is an HTML5 element that didn't even exist back then. Instead, we used tables inside tables insides tables inside iframes to structure our navigations. CSS was still some mystic magic that only a few wizards knew how to use effectively. And…

I think clearly author was using "like it's 1999" as a metaphor, not literally.

It's a fairly common phrase (originating from a Prince song I think) that you can take to mean "like a throwback to a more authentic and possibly prior era." In this case the era is prior the explosion of frameworks and div soup.

Which strangely in this case is not necessarily prior but in parallel, as you said. This is English, it doesn't have to be precise like programming. You can use it for effect.

Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999

#148
post #127

Using the correct semantic element goes a huge way for people using screen readers and other assistive tech. One of the things I hate most about react/vue is how casually people use divs for everything from inputs to images. Over 20% of people use some assistive tech, whether that be zoom, contrast controls, screen readers, etc. Even if you can't test all this, being aware of it when building/coding is a huge step fo…

I wrote a small tool to test for this https://github.com/prettydiff/semanticText

Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999

#149
post #138

As someone who has a pretty serious visual impairment, I find the attitude of so many of these comments really... disappointing. You wouldn't believe how much effort people with poor vision have to go to, to consume the modern web. You can't even take simple things for granted like being able to zoom. So many websites pollute their page with pointless navigation elements that block most of the content when the page i…

Do you have a link(s) that summarizes these points so devs that are ignorant of these needs can reference?

Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tables inside tables inside framesets FTFY

I was just about to say that. I also found that a surprising number of sites that used framesets would also embed midi files as entertainment...

I guess there's some logic to that. If you want the ability to navigate within a website without restarting the music all the time, you need to implement some kind of hack. Back then, it was frames. Nowadays, it's SPAs.
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