The idea behind creating a standard is that we all agree on guidelines to follow, for both developers and browser-makers.

Of late, slapping an xhtml standard sticker on something has become popular. Not bad in and of itself. What makes it "evil" is the attitudes behind it.

Many pick xhtml transitional, and still put the same crap in their source: nasty nested tables/divs, fonts/spans/classes everywhere. Complete lack of anything remotely semantic or usable. A big mess. None of it following the spirit of standards. And forget browsing in anything other than IE. Its too much of a pain in the @ss.

Then we try and get it to look the same no matter what browser you use.

Again, we're back at creating standards. How frustrating it is when browser-makers won't co-operate.

For example. IE has the CSS properties, overflow-x and overflow-y. Mozilla (and now the reborn Netscape) browsers only have overflow.

But you know what? Others agreed: its nice to have separate x and y capability. So it was added to the CSS3 draft.

But it has yet to work the other way. IE claimed that 6 would add new special CSS "enhancements". However, they are only available to you if you trigger standards mode by using a correct doctype. I've seen people refuse to use standards because they want the scrollbar to be purple (in IE-only. I should add you can do this is standards mode as well, if you know your stuff or as someone who does).

The IE makers have dragged their feet (before and since), refusing to support current standards in the name of "not breaking current websites", which is only an excuse. In the past they have added "enhancements", upgraded the html support, and guess what: nothing "broke".

Don't forget: we've had to whine at them to get security fixes, which sometimes aren't enough of a fix. They are seemingly only interested in adding new "features" when its their idea first. Its not wrong to be frustrated by this.

I always aim to create standard and clean design, creating it as semantic as possible, aiming for real-world usability. Does that mean I will refuse to use a non-standard property? No. It means I will carefully balance it out on a case-by-case basis.

I don't worship the god of standards. But standards are a very important tool, which should not be overlooked or mocked. If we can all get to using standard markup, style, and scripting, it makes our jobs easier, and so could very well make our clients happier. Which, is what good business is about.

I personally used to use IE. I don't anymore because I get more crap on my computer with it than without it. But I still have a copy of it, and I still make sure it renders my designs well. If it could be made more secure, supported more of standards again, I would be glad to use it. I simply think its way overdue for a real upgrade.