What are the key differences between various web coding standards?

Web coding standards vary in syntax, semantics, and best practices. HTML focuses on content structure, CSS on styling, and JavaScript on interactivity. Key differences lie in their roles and how they're implemented across browsers.

Web coding standards vary in their focus. 1. HTML: HTML5: New elements (`<article>`, `<section>`), multimedia support (`<audio>`, `<video>`). XHTML: strict, XML-based, requiring proper nesting and lowercase attributes. 2. CSS: CSS2 has core features like positioning and text styles. CSS3: New features like transitions, animations, flexbox, and grid layouts. 3. JavaScript: ES5 & ES6 4. Accessibility: WCAG 2.0 & WCAG 2.1 5. Performance: HTTP/1.1: Basic web communication. HTTP/2: multiplexing, server push. HTTP/3: Faster, built on QUIC. 6. Security: CSP: Prevents code injection attacks. HTTPS: secure communication. These standards ensure accessibility, security, and performance across web applications.

HTML and XHTML are both markup languages used to build web pages, but they have distinct characteristics. HTML is known for its flexibility, allowing some variation in element definitions and closures. In contrast, XHTML follows stricter rules based on XML, demanding proper nesting, closure, and case sensitivity for all elements. While XHTML offers consistency and reliability across XML applications, its rigid structure can be challenging for newcomers to grasp.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the standard markup language used to create web pages. HTML is relatively flexible in its syntax and often forgiving of errors, allowing things like unclosed tags and missing quotes. XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language) is a stricter variant of HTML, formulated as an application of XML. XHTML requires proper closure of all elements, nested elements must be properly closed before their parent element, and tags and attributes must be in lower case.

XHTML was trendy 10 years ago, but today (2024) is largely considered obsolete. It consists on the HTML 4 standard plus XML syntax, but it has been superseded by HTML5, which is the current standard, is more flexible and has better support for modern web technologies. If you are starting a new project, you should use HTML5

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is the language that gives HTML documents their visual appeal. It's evolved through versions like CSS1, CSS2, and CSS3, each introducing new features. CSS1 laid the groundwork, CSS2 added positioning and media types, and CSS3 brought in modern features like rounded corners and animations. Understanding these versions helps you craft stylish and functional web pages.

Different CSS versions offer varying functionalities and browser support. Modern CSS (CSS3) introduces advanced features like flexbox, grid layout, and animations, enhancing design possibilities, but it might not be supported by older browsers. Older CSS (CSS2.1) offers basic styling capabilities but lacks the advanced features of CSS3. While it has wider browser support, it can be more restrictive in terms of design flexibility. For example, you might want to use a modern CSS grid layout to create a complex product page layout. However, to ensure compatibility with older browsers, you might need to implement fallbacks using older CSS techniques.

ES6, also known as ECMAScript 2015, transformed JavaScript by introducing powerful new features. With concepts like classes, template literals, and arrow functions, ES6 offers developers more expressive and efficient ways to write code. These enhancements streamline development and make JavaScript more versatile for building modern web applications.

Creating an inclusive web experience involves following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines prioritize principles like perceivability, operability, and understandability, ensuring that web content is accessible to everyone, regardless of disabilities. Adhering to WCAG standards not only promotes inclusivity but also expands your audience reach.

As we know, WCAG define best practices for creating websites that are usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. Different standards approach accessibility in different ways. WCAG 2.1, the current standard, focuses on making content perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust across different assistive technologies. Further, some organizations might have their own accessibility guidelines that build upon WCAG principles also. For example, WCAG 2.1 mandates providing alternative text descriptions for images to ensure screen reader users can understand the content.

Responsive design is essential in web development for ensuring websites adapt well to different screen sizes, devices, and orientations. To achieve it, developers use techniques like flexible grids, media queries, and fluid images. They design layouts that adjust dynamically based on the user's device, providing an optimal viewing experience. This approach is crucial as it enhances usability, accessibility, and SEO performance, catering to diverse user preferences and behaviors across various devices.

Coding with responsive design is essential for creating websites that provide an optimal viewing experience across a wide range of devices, from desktops to smartphones. This approach uses flexible layouts, images, and cascading styles sheets (CSS) queries to adjust the design to fit different screen sizes and orientations. The goal is to ensure that content is accessible and legible without requiring users to pinch and zoom, enhancing usability and satisfaction. Responsive design also helps boost SEO rankings, as search engines favour mobile friendly sites.

Web security standards focus on protecting user data and mitigating vulnerabilities. These standards are often updated to address evolving threats. For examples, standards like Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and its successor, Transport Layer Security (TLS), encrypt communication between a website and a user's browser, safeguarding sensitive information like login credentials or credit card details. Another example is Content Security Policy (CSP), which helps mitigate cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks by restricting the scripts that a web page can load.