The Importance of Web Standards

Who's Behind the Web Standards?

Everybody's heard about Web standards, yet very few really go the extra mille to comply with them. Currently, five standards have been officially implemented, and two more are in the works. Most of them come from the W3 Consortium. One standard, however, originated at another organization, called ECMA.

The W3C develops open specifications to enhance the interoperability of Web-related products, in an effort to ultimately standardize the WWW. Special working groups obtain a general consensus from companies and organizations that are active in the Web's development. These documents, called Working Drafts and Proposed Recommendations, are submitted to the W3C board of executive members and directors for formal approval as "official" W3C Recommendations. These Recommendations are what the Web standards are all about. They are the foundations upon which the future of Web building resides. They include HTML, XML, CSS and DOM.

ECMA's main role is to develop standards and technical reports in the field of information and communication technology. The Web standard brought up by ECMA has been accepted as a base for scripting standards worldwide. It's called ECMAScript, or ECMA-262, and it's a standardized, cleaner version of JavaScript.
What are the Standards?

HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the first ever standard to emerge from the W3C, is widely used on the Web. It is by far the most common tool for designing Web pages, which is why people usually refer to HTML as the backbone of the WWW. Thanks to HTML structuring elements (tags), text documents interpreted by browsers can display their contents according to specified formats. HTML is one of the main reasons why the Web has become so popular over the years.
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is like HTML on steroids. While it supports most of the fixed set of elements contained in HMTL 4.0, it allows the coder to customize new tag elements according either to a pre-set DTD (Document Type Definition) or to one that can be personally defined. XML is much more flexible than HMTL and is totally future-oriented. XML is the standard through which the Web's full potential can be achieved.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are a Web developer's dreams come true. It is a mechanism through which changes in appearance and position can be assigned to HTML or XML elements, simply by declaring specific styles to them. The overall appearance of entire sites can be so defined with the use of CSS, allowing it to be remodeled in a matter of seconds. This Standard was brought forward by the W3C to create a simpler and more structured World Wide Web.

From Sitepoint