So we know that some really big sites have some awful markup right? View source on amazon, gmail or google calendar and you'll find things like iframes and inline css & js. stuff like....
<td style="white-space: nowrap;" class="cornerBookmarks"><div style="overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; float: left" class="cornerBookmarks"> etc etc The thing is, their stuff renders really quickly. even on a slow modem connection, gmail is really quite snappy and usable. ie: in some instances, I am sure this is not lazy programming. I know from 1st hand experience & reading [1] that there are actual, real, performance benefits with inlining styles and js. Obviously it makes us sick to see markup like that but at the end of the day (and if you're a 'moderate' standards enthusiast like me as opposed to an 'extremist' one) if there's a commercial or user benefit in breaking some rules - its not surprising how these decisions get made. I get the feeling not everyone knows this though and just pans (criticises) big companies & sites without knowing how they came up with that result. It may be useful to hear of some experiences where your own markup has been compromised for performance. For someone learning this stuff from scratch i think this can be useful to know why some sites are doing this - and what they should follow or avoid for their own projects. as an aside, i think it'll be really interesting to see how Doug working for Google [2] will effect their markup. cheers, pete [1] - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735713243/ [2] - http://stopdesign.com/log/2006/05/27/going-to-google.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pete Ottery Head of Design News Interactive A News Limited Company Address: Level 3, 2 Holt Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 Australia Visit the News Interactive Network of sites: NEWS.com.au | australianIT.com.au | escape.com.au FOXSPORTS.com.au | realestate.com.au | careerone.com.au carsguide.com.au | homesite.com.au ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
