Buzzwords
- Atom
- CSS
- DCMI
- ECMAScript
- FOAF
- No Nested Tables
- No Transitional/Frameset
- Podcast / iPod
- RSS
- Standards Mode
- XHTML
- XHTML MIME Type
Atom
Atom is a file format for syndicating your content. Is is an alternative to the more widely-supported RSS. An advantage of the Atom format over RSS is that the latter has seen many revisions, extensions and broken implementations, and as a consequence many RSS files are “tag-soup”.
The Buzzword validator currently reports Atom as OPTIONAL. You may like to consider adding an Atom feed to your site, but for now RSS may be a better investment in time.
CSS
CSS is the W3C's recommendation for adding style to HTML and XML files (and theoretically, any tree-structured data).
CSS is very widely supported, and is by far the most practical way of adding styling information to your site. The Buzzword validator reports CSS as REQUIRED.
DCMI
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative provides a standardised method for encoding meta-information such as authorship, intended audience, temporal relevence, keywords and categorisation into a document. It is useful to next-generation search indexers and archiving robots.
The Buzzword validator reports DCMI metadata as RECOMMENDED. Dublin Core is not very widely supported yet, but including it does no harm and may benefit some future-thinking tools.
ECMAScript
ECMAScript is the official name for the standardised core of the Netscape's Javascript, Microsoft's JScript and Macromedia's ActionScript languages. Combined with the HTML document object model (DOM) you can add dynamic effects to pages.
When dymanic client-side effects are required on a page, the Buzzword validator recommends the use of Javascript; but as such effects are not always desired on a page the validator reports ECMAScript as OPTIONAL.
FOAF
FOAF (Friend-Of-A-Friend) can be used to provide machine-readable metadata about you, your hobbies and your social circle.
It has been somewhat superceded by XFN and hCard, but still gets you valuable geek buzzword points!
FOAF is considered OPTIONAL by the Buzzword Validator.
No Nested Tables
Nested tables are evil.
It is RECOMMENDED by the validator that you do not use them. Every time you use a nested table, God kills a kitten. Think about that.
No Transitional/Frameset
Transitional DOCTYPEs are the mark of a lazy developer. Someone who can't be bothered to spend the extra thirty seconds it takes to validate against HTML 4.01 Strict (or, even better for buzzword points: XHTML 1.0 Strict).
The Transitional DTD was designed way back in 1997 for people “transitioning” their ancient tag-soup markup to the brand new standardised HTML 4.0 — it wasn't designed for people starting brand new web pages.
The 90's are finished — get over it! Brown is no longer the “new black”; they've stopped making Seinfeld; Clinton's out. Wake up and smell the frappucino — it's the twenty-first century already!