Elegant Coding

It might seem strange to talk about code in terms of elegance... It's not as though code wears a tuxedo, takes to the dance floor, and sips fine wine from a glass.

But elegant coding means something different. It refers to coding that follows a certain standard of compliance, that is correctly validated, and that doesn't use unnecessarily chunky markup where fewer lines of code could achieve the same effect.

The entire purpose of coding is that of any language - to convey meaning. HTML (or XHTML as the transition language between old HTML and XML - a better and cleaner code) has to tell browsers what the designer wants to convey. It's pointless creating a beautiful speech in a language invented by oneself, which no one else understands... The only possible one to be gratified by eloquence in such a language is oneself. And the same is entirely true of coding for webpages.

Eloquence must be engendered comprehensibly. Coding must be interpreted correctly by the major browsers used currently. So correctly validated coding is intrinsically well on the way to elegance.

But of course, it doesn't stop there... Simply avoiding mistakes (avoiding deprecated markup) is all well and good - and highly necessary. But creating beautiful, stunning, effective, accessible effects for a webpage by using correctly validated XHTML - that's the point of departure for beginner level competence into the sea of true design.

But before a designer gets carried away on the tide of his/her own eloquence, it's also necessary to think about the user. Think, for instance, of some cute little effects on some webpages you have seen. The first time you see the page, it might amuse... but novelty on a webpage often has a short lifespan of non-annoyance for the user. It's like hearing someone tell the same old joke a hundred times. So... hand in hand with elegant coding goes the concept of elegant design - i.e., avoid effects to which the user is subjected willy-nilly as soon as they enter a site, unless they are unobtrusive or intrinsically necessary.

Again, thinking about the user means coding the webpage so that its loading time is NOT going to be counted in terms of how many times the user drums his fingers on the computer desk... waiting, waiting, waiting.

Using code so that a webpage is rendered correctly across all major browsers... using code to create fast-loading websites... using code to create a great look in as concise a way as possible... code that conveys the design eloquently... code that will see the webpage it specifies work properly well into the future... that's elegance.

From concept to design, Web Empress works to provide you with a website to suit your design criteria.