Standards Embraced by webscribe.us

Writing Standards for webscribe.us Webpages

Only a tiny elite minority in ancient Egypt could read, not to mention physically access writing. Unlike ancient scribes' writing, our pages strive for universal access for all people. Contemporary devices range from text-only Web browsers to multimedia, screen readers and adaptive deliveries.

Content vs. Layout

webscribe.us intends to write code which follows w3c.org guidelines to enable CONTENT accessible to as many devices as possible, including those with limited graphics and script reading capabilities. Browsers which adhere to the current XHTML & CSS standards, and enable JavaScript, display the most visually rich presentation. Indeed, it's fun to share art images and play with a little movement sometimes. The "legacy" browsers of yesterday which aimed for pretty presentations in their day take a big hit. It makes no sense to design separate pages which are backwards compatible for older IE and Netscape versions.

Standards compliant pages:

provide pretty layout to compliant browsers and

provide meaningful content to alternate browsers

Therefore newer pages may look less pretty in older browsers, although you should still be able to access the content. Legacy pages which haven't been remodeled should look fine, of course, in legacy browsers.

Your choices are to:

Use alternative browers and enjoy the content

Use a compliant browser and enjoy the full show

The screen grabs on the next page may help your exploration of other browser performance. [screens]

What is the point?

Web pages look different on different Internet devices. To illustrate, here are eight local screen grabs of one page in a few Windows and Mac browsers at hand. Of course there are lots of other devices and platforms besides the ubiquitous PC... Glance at these 8 screen captures illustrating Lynx, Mosaic, NS7, IE4 Mac, IE 6, NS4.7, Opera, Mozilla all at 800 X 600 resolution. (Not to mention the various ways users can change their display...) [screens]

Check out the Web Standards Project's browser upgrade initiative.

Writing Standards in Ancient Egypt

Enduring standards for the Ancient Egyptians' sacred writing or hieroglyphs, as the Greeks called it, allowed the language to be shared across centuries. The hieroglyph for a standard looks like an angle bracket; it carried religious symbols.

Thoth, the original scribe and god of writing, appears as the sacred ibis atop a standard in a hieroglyph which serves as the sound thoth in Thutmose III's name below.

Because of standards, the Egyptians' writing persisted in recognizable form for thousands of years. It could be read on papyrus, painted walls, incised or low relief and painted stone work from statues to structures, small amulets and scarabs, linen wrap--nearly anything with a surface.

Web Standards

The new Web standards are likewise intended to permit our written words to be read on a multitude of devices, both large and increasingly smaller. Adhering to the carefully crafted standards for writing Web pages helps make the written word viewable across diverse platforms. Unlike the ancient Egyptian language, however, the language of the WWW is young. It needs to be forward looking.

Reference: http://www.w3c.org

Website Design Services

webscribe.us offers design of cross platform compatible Web pages for enterprises which want to provide content accessible to a wide range of people. Your inquiries, feedback, and comments are invited: design@webscribe.us. Request the free getting started checklist to explore your online potential.

Note to alternative browsers: This page has been written to the current Web standards using CSS for layout of two columns and an iframe. The content is accessible to most browsers, even if you do not see the intended layout. You can upgrade to a standards compliant browser with a free download for viewing the full layout. Check out the Browser Upgrade Initiative