Tech

Precise communication

"The website doesn't work on Macs" is something I hear from time to time.

I'm always surprised and disappointed. I use a Mac at home and rarely have trouble with any website.

When I'm asked to look at such a problem, the root cause is almost always the same: the page itself was wrong. The language of most web pages is HTML, and just like spoken languages HTML has a vocabulary and a grammar.

On hearing a grammatically incorrect sentence we make assumptions about what the speaker's intended meaning was. When the original wording isn't precise you and I may infer different interpretations.

It's just the same with software. Abuse HTML and all bets are off. Unless you stick to the rules

What really surprises me is that I - and others - have been harping on about this for years yet some still haven't understood the message. There are freely available tools that make it easy.

I'm also rather saddened that some new technologies which aim to simplify content creation can be persuaded to emit illegal HTML. (Try putting "*foo _bar* baz_" into Textile.)

There's no excuse really. Ten years on this shouldn't still be a problem.