documentation 4

HTML 4 & 5: The Complete Reference is an iPhone / iPad app that does exactly what it says: a reference for HTML 4 and 5. It has a list of all tags, clearly demarcated as HTML4, HTML5 or both. The application is fairly easy to scroll through to find the tag or attribute you want. Clicking on a tag, you get: a brief description of what it’s for what attributes are valid – the good part is you can see clearly which attributes are specific to the element, and which ones are common (like class, id, etc.). You can also see the possible values for the attribute, which helps. and an example of how the tag is used. The examples are quite simplistic, and there’s only one per tag, but it does have a rendered version of the code, which helps. You can also scroll through the list of attributes and see which tags they’re valid for. ...

It’s amazing how much of a dependency there is on individuals writing IT systems. Reminds me of that Dilbert strip: A few weeks ago, I was trying to figure out in what happens when there are multiple promotions. (Our client is a retailer.) I mean, if there’s a phone that costs £100 and there are 2 promotions: 10% off on phones and £10 off on phones. Do you apply the 10% off first and pay £80 or the £10 off and pay £81? ...

Programmers: learn from this. Laymen want documentation they understand. (Wish someone told me 5 years ago.)

Web design guidelines are available at the Web Developer’s Virtual Library.