Whenever possible my web applications comply to the XHTML Strict standard; however, the ever growing want for Web 2.0 mashup applications forces developers to create content for multiple platforms such as PDAs, RSS readers, and multiple web browsers. It pains me when I need to enforce styles across platforms thus forcing me to downgrade from Strict to Transitional.

For example, in a recent post I included a picture of a baby duck wearing glasses. In my layout I wanted it to float right. Easy enough, I just place a class on it and define my style in the CSS. It looks great on the page and is Strict compliant, but then it renders incorrectly in feed readers such as Google Reader.

In this example, I don’t give a hoot how the baby duck renders in Google Reader, but what if I did? I would be reduced to make the following change:

As a result, this is not XHTML Strict complaint and I would have to mark the entire page Transitional. Perhaps this sounds silly, but as data is passed more freely between multiple systems this problem will only get worse. As a result a decision must be made between two choices:

• Keep data and display decoupled, but surrender render details on other systems
• Embed styles and render how you want, but surrender decoupling

Does it need to be this black and white? Can a happy medium be meet with a new standard? For example, what would happen if the next version of RSS allowed you to add the location of an associated CSS file? Would this solve the problem or would it create more problems?

Shout back…

Most developers have thoughts racing through their minds at break-neck speeds. I am no different, but it was only this year I learned to capture those thoughts as they occur – I started carrying a moleskine.

You are probably thinking, “What a schmuck, he is telling me to write down my ideas”. You are partially correct, but more importantly I am suggesting form the habit of carrying a notebook everywhere.

You can have ideas anywhere, and it is important you that you get them down as quickly as possible. Everywhere I go, I carry my mini-moleskine. I have stopped in my tracks to write down ideas:

• Sketched out The New Consultant at a red light
• Stopped reading Alan Watts (on a boat) to write the core of Why Linguists Are True Code Artists
• Stopped mowing the lawn 4 times in one day to add items to 101 Ways To Know Your Software Project Is Doomed
• Invented the Cereal To-Go cup while eating breakfast in a rush (to bad someone already had the same idea first…)

You don’t have to exclusively carry a moleskine. Plain notepads or PDAs can act as digital moleskines. For extra fun, there are plenty of moleskine hacks such as dream journals, stashing extra cash, or even a hard drive case.

So what is in my moleskine for future posts? Here is a sneak peek into the future of codesqueeze. Whats in your moleskine?

In the post Why Linguists Are True Code Artists I came to this realization:

…the maximum elegance of any solution is bound by the language that we use to create it.

While coding in Ruby, it was interesting to see Scott Belware had the revelation:

…design patterns are bound to the programming languages that express them.

I like this thought as it is looking at the same concept from a higher level.