Recommended Technologies

Authoring Technologies

If you do not produce web pages, then you may not realize how important web standards are for everyone, even for "mere users." You see, standards have several important benefits for web readers, namely:

Faster loading times
More software choices i.e. all browsers should display all pages essentially the same way
Better accessibility for persons with disabilities

HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.1

Description: HTML is the language in which web pages are written. Originally designed as a very minimal language that described the structure¹ of a web page. For a while though, the HTML language, which was not really standardized, had many elements added to it to control formatting, including some more useful than others. These had many disadvantages which would require more space to discuss than is appropriate here. In the early HTML standards some of these elements were incorporated, though as the standards evolved they returned more to the original principles of HTML. Recommendation 4.01 does a fairly good job of embodying these principles, or at least as long as authors stay away from deprecated tags and attributes. XHTML 1.1, which is essentially a conversion of HTML to a document type of the more flexible XML, does an even better job.
URL: W3C HTML Home Page

1 That is, the semantics of the page, such as indicating a heading or emphasized text.

CSS 2

Description: CSS 2 is a language that tells web browsers how to format a web page. It is a very flexible, elegant solution to the bloat problems HTML suffered. Using CSS 2, or other style languages, allows separation of content and appearance, which is to say, that 1) the way the page looks and the content of the page can be separated into different files; and 2) that users can override the appearance of a page and still have access to the content of the page. CSS 2 is important in improving web accessibility.
URL: W3C Cascading Style Sheets Home Page

User Technologies

Web Browsers

Amaya

Category: Web browser and editor
Description: Test platform for web technologies. Does not have the best rendering engine in the world, but it works fairly well, and it supports some features that still aren't in many mainstream browsers. Additionally, you can quickly produce web pages with WYSIWYG-style editing, and still not produce hacked, bloated HTML in the process.
License: GNU General Public License
Pros: Open Source, multi-platform, good compliance with web standards, unusual features, and can edit HTML and XHTML documents.
Cons: Problems displaying some documents, does not handle well pages that are non-compliant with web standards.
URL: Amaya Home Page

Lynx

Category: Web browser
Description: The world's most popular text-only browser. I just like it for its purity, what can I say? Seriously, though, if a page doesn't look right in lynx, I know it wasn't written right².
License: GNU General Public License
Pros: Open Source, multi-platform, small, text-only.
Cons: Text-only, doesn't handle tables well, actually not as fast as some graphical browsers, no style sheet support.
URL: Lynx Home Page

2 There are a few small issues with tables.

Mozilla

Category: Web browser
Description: Open Source browser based on Mozilla code. Same efficient rendering engine, but smaller memory usage and better interface. Still an early version, but appears to be fairly stable. My new browser of choice.
License: Mozilla Public License, Netscape Public License, GNU General Public License, and GNU Lesser General Public License
Pros: Open Source, multi-platform, good compliance with web standards, very fast rendering of web pages, unusual but useful features.
Cons: Large and slow.
URL: Mozilla Home Page

Off By One

Category: Web browser
Description: Fast, 1.05MB uncompressed, web browser that supports everything but CSS and Javascript.
License: Freeware
Pros: Easy install and uninstall. Renders the majority of sites predictably.
Cons: No CSS support. A few, typically 'standard,' features missing.
URL: Off By One Home Page

Opera

Category: Web browser
Description: Fast, very high quality, web browser with support for nearly everything. Mark's primary web browser.
License: Adware or Commercial
Pros: Available for many platforms. Possibly the fastest web browser available.
Cons: CSS support is not as good as IE or Mozilla and derivatives. Costs money. Not Open Source.
URL: Opera Home Page

Phoenix

Category: Web browser
Description: Open Source browser based on Mozilla code. Same efficient rendering engine, but smaller memory usage and better interface. Still an early version, but appears to be fairly stable. My new browser of choice.
License: Same as Mozilla?
Pros: Fast, small, blocks pop-ups, and any other advantages that apply to Mozilla.
Cons: Still in early versions so may be buggy, and any disadvantages that apply to Mozilla except for speed and size.
URL: Phoenix Home Page

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