Principles of Meaningful Markup
Note: This page is still very much under construction...
We want the principles of Meaningful Markup to filter in to as many online sites as possible. But what are those principles?
Evolutionary
It's simply not possible to make everything perfect in the first attempt. Meaningful Markup is evolutionary and will develop over time.
In many cases, existing software (like this wiki for example) will use somewhat terrible HTML markup. That doesn't mean that you can't apply meaningful markup to such software - you can still improve chunks of the output as time permits, gradually making the markup cleaner and more semantic.
Objective: Incrementally improve your HTML markup!
Flexible
Keep things flexible. No matter how much effort we put in to something, time will always improve it – given the chance.
If you start creating a process for a project here on Meaningful Markup, do so only to prevent common problems or help people avoid common mistakes/pitfalls.
Objective: Keep your processes flexible and your mind open to new ideas.
Free and Public Domain
Everything on this site must be treated as public domain. We absolutely do not want to hear about anything to do with planned patents or restrictive copyrights.
Objective: Ensure that everyone can freely use Meaningful Markup in any kind of environment.
Semantic HTML
Use correct syntax and markup wherever possible. If there's a HTML tag that is geared for a particular use, eg. the <TT> tag defines typewriter text, use it!
Documents should have a clear structure and use things like titles, headings and other markup to not only give a good visual representation but also provide "hidden metadata" about the document that other software can understand and take advantage of.
Objective: Use correct markup, make it easier for software to understand the structure of your pages!
Microformats
Microformats are primarily aimed at defining metadata in a predominantly human-friendly manner. There are lots of useful microformats and associated tools that should be used wherever possible.
We do have a couple of slight gripes with Microformats though:
- Why make them overly human-friendly when they rarely get seen by humans?
- The microformats process demands extensive research of new proposals making it difficult to innovate
- There is an ongoing "heated discussion" about the ownership, copyright and patents relating to microformats
Objective: Take advantage of microformats, but don't be limited by their process.
Common Sense
If there's a blatantly obvious way to do something, then do it that way! No point getting hung up on processes and procedures or someone's tunnel-vision.
For example, there are a growing number of different ways to convey common information such as author, creation/modified date, etc., relating to various types of things (comments, pages, etc). Would it not make more sense to have one standard way of describing such information?
Objective: Save time and effort by applying common sense, above all else, to decision making
Open Community
We don't want Meaningful Markup to be a narrow-minded small community. We want everyone to be able to have their say and get involved at any level they desire.
If there's a project on this site that you think could benefit for your input, just dive in and contribute.
An open community is a great place to incubate new ideas. We're not going to shoot you down in flames because you have a new idea. But do listen to feedback from others - there might be genuine reasons for people not accepting your idea (you are free to argue of course)!
Objective: Foster a community, incubate new ideas, facilitate rapid development.
