4 things a web developer must be aware of

Here I have tried to put together a list of web developer must know items... feel free to add more items or to add more details to a particular item.


1. Tables layout days are over!
There was a time when almost all the web developers were using HTML tables for creating the page layout. Tables are not meant for creating page layouts rather they should be used only for displaying tabular data.

Its not only that CSS layout helps you in doing semantic markup but also helps you in escaping from the following damages:
- Search engines crawling goes well with CSS layout than the tables layout
- Tables layout is not accessible as alternate browsing methods almost does not works with tables layout
- Add more points that you follow and/or know

In addition the CSS layouts gives you following advantages:
- Allows extreme flexibility in positioning
- Keeps the HTMl/text ratio at a low level thus decreasing load time
- Allows the display of main content first while the graphics load afterwards
- Add more points that you follow and/or know

2. Performance is no more a tweaking or repair work!
In earlier days performance (load time and round trip) was not given much importance! At least at the development time. Most of the times performance was a tweaking and repair work. Things have changed a lot, performance is now a integrated part of web development. Few things that must be considering (maybe at the time development and planning itself) are:
- Use CSS Sprite model for all the image rendering
- Minimize, merge and gzip the css and javascript files at the time of rendering
- Use Content Delivery Network for page assets (images, css and js) delivery! If the company that you are working for is not aware of what it is... try to educate
- Place all the css inclusions at the top of the html and all the js inclusions right at the bottom of the html and avoid having inline css and js
- Add more points that you follow and/or know

3. Search Engine Friendly design rather than Search Engine Optimization!
Similar to performance considering search engine crawling, indexing and ranking has become a part of development itself rather than some expert having a look at the completed and maybe live site and advice and give tips for search engine optimization. Here are few things a developer himself can go ahead and practice:
- Use alt/title tags for all the images and links
- Use rel=nofollow attribute wherever its applicable
- Do logical URL rewriting
- Add more points that you follow and/or know


4. MVC is the way to go!
MVC which stands for Model-View-Controller is the architecture for any application in general and web application and website in particular. Following MVC does not mean that you have use any existing framework (which most of the times does not suits for our specific needs) or develop one of your own that can be used by all your applications. You can keep things simple if you understand that MVC is used to separate out presentation (view) layer from business logic (model) and control and similarly business logic and control from the other two!!

Also you can follow even if your code is not object oriented! Its a myth that MVC can be done only object oriented coding!!

If you support MVC write the practical problems that you faced and how you solved them and your other experiences. If you have counter argument or points against MVC please write as comment... it will be a interesting debate!!!

Contribute to the community by adding more points (as comments) that you feel a web developer should be aware of!!

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