The days of “this site is best viewed in...” are over! We shall no longer be discriminated against for using the browser of our choice. Forget tedious template management, and be prepared to save some dollars on bandwidth! The World Wide Web Consortium have come to agreement on the new Web Standards that will allow us to code and maintain our pages with far less effort, all the while resting assured that everyone can see them as we intended.
W3C Web Standards - Third Component: ECMAScript (Page 7 of 7 )
Don't get too scared now thinking that all of a sudden you're going to have to run out and learn a whole new scripting language! I made that mistake, and it took me 3 days to come out from hiding under the bed and actually discover what ECMAScript is. Simply put, it's just a standardized JavaScript, a reference by which browser developers can know what to implement.
Essentially ECMAScript is used to manipulate objects within a web page by referencing the Document Object Model (DOM). I believe Netscape's event model was adapted into the standard as well. If you're already well versed in JavaScript, you don't need to worry about learning too many new things, you'll just have to make sure you adhere to the guidelines. A detailed discussion of ECMAScript is beyond the scope of this article, but you can find all you need on the web (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm). As a side note: I've always wanted to use that whole 'beyond the scope' bit. Ahh, one more tick off my life's to-do list!
Conclusion
One very cool thing about using Web standards, is that your page becomes very readable on any platform or browser, even a PDA! If the style sheet is unavailable, the page just breaks down into the text and links. None of this table gobble-dee-gook.
You will be so happy you've converted. For once, conformity is a good thing, a darn good thing. Let us all embrace the world of standardization, and usher in era of nondiscriminatory browsing!
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