Sharing knowledge to fight ignorance.

The HTML Hell Page

Published:

Original author: Eric S. Raymond

Commentator: Vanza Setia

My favorite point from The HTML Hell Page is to always set both color and background-color. Why do you need to do that?

It is not wise to assume that the viewer has not fiddled with the default settings on their browser; either set both colours or neither.

I believe this is something that people can easily overlook.

Also, I agree with Eric that people sometimes forget the most essential thing on the web. It is not your code. It is the content. Why does content matter?

Give the audience a reason to care.

If your website is completely compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), but your website gives nothing to people, you already make your website hard to reach lots of people.

One more thing, I hate the HTML marquee element—Eric hates it too. I remember when I had to wait to see a date because it was on the marquee element. It moved quickly. I could not read it properly. Thanks to that I spent more than one minute just to read a date. (Don't tell anybody that it is a government website.)

I do not want to spoil everything. So you know what to do now.