Of Patterns and Power: Web Standards Then & Now
+
+ + IN "CONTENT Display Patterns" + (which all front-end folk should read), Dan Mall points to a truth not unlike the one + Ethan Marcotte shared last month on 24 ways. + It is a truth as old as standards-based design: Construct your markup to properly support your content (not your design). +
++ Modular/atomic design doesn’t change this truth, it just reinforces its wisdom. + Flexbox and grid layout + don’t change this truth, they just make it easier to do it better. + HTML5 doesn’t change this truth, it just reminds us that the separation of structure from style came into existence for a reason. + A reason that hasn’t changed. + A reason that cannot change, because it is the core truth of the web, and is inextricably bound up with the promise of this medium. +
++ Separating structure from style and behavior was the web standards movement’s prime revelation, and each generation of web designers discovers it anew. + This separation is what makes our content as backward-compatible as it is forward-compatible (or “future-friendly,” if you prefer). + It’s the key to re-use. The key to accessibility. + The key to the new kinds of CMS systems we’re just beginning to dream up. + It’s what makes our content as accessible to an ancient device as it will be to an unimagined future one. +
+