Once Netscape Navigator popped up on the scene with its set of proprietary tags, they set in motion the process by which we've inherited the browser chaos outlined in this chapter. The problem only got worse as web design grew beyond simple HTML to encompass richer web technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets and DHTML. Not only does developing for a multitude of incompatible browsers cause headaches, but redundant development time also costs a lot of money.

Their first goal, of course, is to get all browsers to support the same standards for HTML and other web technologies. In an ideal world, there would be one way to code a page for a particular effect, and it would work exactly the same way on 100% of the browsers, regardless of platform. Although Netscape 6 and Internet Explorer 5 (Mac) and Internet Explorer 5.5 (Windows) boast standards compliance, there are still a few bugs to work out. It will also take some years for older browser versions to fade away. But the current trend is encouraging.

WaSP also works hard to educate web developers on the need to observe standards. The end goal is total observance of standards, which means that web content and style information should be kept separate: the content in a structured HTML or XML document, and the instructions for how it is displayed contained in a style sheet. This becomes especially pertinent as we see more alternative browsing clients (such as wireless handheld devices with tiny screens) hitting the scenes. As long as web designers continue to use <font> and other hacks to the HTML concept, the standards effort is diluted and web content is not fully accessible.