Comments on: Episode Three: Mark it up!

By: Marko

Marko — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:47:22 +0000

Restrained? Well in some cases, yes. I could talk now about that a lot here but I wont. It’s not that I think about markup all the time, it’s just simply that in the design process I make some compromises on behalf of better or should I say easier to make markup and css, for me of course :). Those compromises never interfere with my overall design.

By: marko

marko — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:53:48 +0000

@Marko: Do you feel restrained in the design phase if you have to think about markup and CSS all the time.

@Ivan: Using tables is appropriate markup for calendar, especially if you think of rows as weeks and days as columns. If written in full, such table would have starting cell in a rows marked-up as
<th scope="row">Week 01</th>

By: Ivan Nikolic

Ivan Nikolic — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:39:19 +0000

I also use “layering method” – XHTML markup first, CSS styling second, then JavaScript behavior last. Of course, most of the time there are some changes to be made to the markup/styling/behavior, be it some necessary workarounds or fresh new ideas :).

Marko, what do you think about using lists for calendar representation? Common practice is to use tables for this things, but since calendar is list of dates, is it correct to use them as calendar alternative? I’ve seen some examples, but don’t think there are too much pros to using them.

Also, naming conventions in CSS: using header and footer IDs for XHTML elements, for example. They all describe where the elements are placed, but not what information they actually contain or represent. Some other semantically correct alternatives?

By: Marko

Marko — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 11:14:42 +0000

As a designer I must say that for me thinking about markup starts already when designing a layout. I draw first everything on paper and before that I make a clear structure of the site. When thinking about some elements on the site in a way how they will look like I also think about how will the markup look like.

Maybe this is not the right way, correct me, bit it works for me.

After I’m done with designing I already know how to code it and if something doesn’t go by plan (meaning markup) I make some alternatives.

By: marko

marko — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:54:27 +0000

Matthew, thanks for sharing — breaking the design into sections is great approach indeed.

By: Matthew Knight

Matthew Knight — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:54:40 +0000

Great article – code semantics are so important these days and are a good indication of the difference between a novice and experienced web developer. Clouds are, as you say, quite clearly a list of items and hence should be coded as such.

For me, the easiest way to tackle something like this when you have a design is to ignore the graphical side of the design altogether.

Instead, break the design down into sections – header, main body, footer. Then break each of these down further still – logo, page title, main navigation, etc. Often I code all the XHTML without even thinking about the CSS, then style it at the end. This way I only have to concentrate on making the XHTML semantically correct at first, and I can worry about the visual appearance later. As you said in the article, if there is something you really can’t do purely with CSS, then you can always tweak the XHTML mark-up if you have to.