HTML Foundations
When we author HTML documents, the main goal that we should have in mind is not the visual representation of the result (that’s the role of CSS), but rather the conveying of the meaning of the content we are creating. First of all we have to think of the readers of the HTML we are writing. These readers are called User Agents.
The User Agent acts on behalf of the user, and the HTML we author must be understandable for the user agent in order for it to be able to present it to the user in the right way. User agent might be for example:
- a web browser
- a screen reader (that’s why accessibility really matters)
- search engine bot
- web scrapers
- LLMs (although these could be seen as web scrapers as well)
We might want to make our documents accessible to some user agents, and as inaccessible as possible to others (like LLMs). That’s a hard thing to do, because making our document semantically rich will most likely improve the experience for all user agents types. Therefore, for the aforementioned LLM case, we would probably go with a different approach, like Anubis, which “weights the soul of incoming HTTP requests to stop AI crawlers”.
Let’s look at what HTML actually stands for:
- HT - HyperText - on of the features of HTML is cross-referencing between different documents.
- M - Markup - allows to enrich documents with meaning via various markup elements
- L - Language - it is a language, it has consistent vocabulary for its markup. It has a specification.
HTML is meant to be semantic - which means that it has to do with meaning. Appropriate markup tags help to give proper meaning to something. Semantics in HTML make it possible for different kinds of user agents to process our documents in different ways. Browesr will make visual distinction between different parts of documents, while screen reader will read content properly. LLMs will know what is the actual content and what isn’t.
Specific Elements
This is just a few examples of HTML tips.
Section vs. Article
A section is a generic grouping of some thematic content. An article is some fragment that stands on its own.
It is not obvious in some cases if we should user a section or an article. Possibly it’s good to look at reusability. If the part we want to markup is kind of unique on the page and will not repeat anywhere else, it might be a section. Otherwise, it’s more like an article.
Anyway, whichever one you choose, it’s almost always a better choise than a DIV.
DIV is a last resort element.
Forms
Every input in a form has its:
id- for label to target itname- for submit to build proper properties list. Each property will take its name form this field. That’s why radio buttons use the same name for every option - because the property name should be the same, just values are different.