THis is a very well-written and thoughtful rebuttal to my post, The New Layers of Web Development. However, the rebuttal was unnecessary, because I actually agree with everything Peter says here. He basically says that it’s still important for your (X)HTML markup to be structurally sound, because the World Wide Web doesn’t know (or care) about your database — it only knows about your markup. It’s a very good point, but it’s not at all in contradiction to my post. I, of course, believe that your markup should be as structurally sound as possible. I just believe that that structure begins at the database level, not at the markup level. It is replicated, and sometimes even enhanced at the markup level — but in a typical modern web app, the One True Source™ for structure is the database, not the markup. This is important especially in our multi-contextual web. The (X)HTML markup can bee seen as contextual structure. In other context — say, RSS or mobile or e-mail —the contextual structure of the same data may be different, but the core structure of the content remains. I definitely have more thoughts on this topic after the great discussion; I’ll get to them eventually.
001 // Peter Quinsey // 10.26.2007 // 11:15 AM
Thanks for the link (and apologies for my delay in following up)!
You’re absolutely right, of course: the database does (and should) set the structural standard for the web app. The tricky thing about XHTML, I think, is that it lives in two worlds. In the world of your web app, it’s comparatively weakly structured, and is essentially a presentation layer. But in the world of the web, it’s the layer with the strongest structure available. Two entirely valid views of the same thing, and just another thing that pits front-end designers against back-end developers. (Those of us who wear both hats just develop multiple personalities.)
And yes, it’s a terrific discussion (and one which will likely continue until we’re writing our markup exclusively in XML).