Should web based applications follow web standards?

Question

By day, I am a front-end web developer but in my off time I dabble with other languages such as C, Objective-C, Python, etc. When I first got into web development the idea of web applications was just getting started.

Since then two amazing frameworks have appeared, SproutIt's SproutCore and 280 North's Cappuccino (+Objective-J). SproutCore is being used by Apple for it's MobileMe application and 280 North released 280 Slides. Both of these applications are amazing and they are a testament to what is possible on the web. So the momentum is shifting. Web applications starting to look and act like desktop applications.

So my question is this: should web based applications follow web standards, separation of markup (content), presentation (design), and behavior (functionality) or no?

I am not sure about SproutCore since I have not look at the source code, but I know that if you go to 280slides.com and turn off the JavaScript everything basically disappears. You are left with some meaningless words.

Let me clarify, I understand that web based applications such as 280 Slides is meant to have JavaScript on and not meant to be functional without it but in my day job my main focus is writing clean markup, separating content, presentation, and behavior so that our site and applications can be used by as many people as possible.

Answer 1

Yes. It will be difficult at first, but once the codebase matures you will be thankful you followed those rigorous standards.

Edit: An added benefit will be portability to many web-based platform via CSS profiles and whatnot.

Answer 2

I think they should. Following that type of MVC design allows for changes to be more easily implemented, provides good separation of concern, and is generally easier to understand for newcomers to a project.

Answer 3

The MVC model can be applied just as easily to desktop applications as it can to web based applications. I don't see much reason to distinguish between the two, especially since the line is more blurred in the case of web applications.

I don't know about these particular frameworks, but a lot of web frameworks these days are structured around the MVC model, such as ASP MVC, CakePHP, Ruby on Rails, etc.

Answer 4

Separate as much as you can and it will pay out in the end. When things get complicated and hairy :)

Answer 5

It seems like the other people who have answered so far have no idea what you're talking about.

Like me, you've had it pounded into your head to make your web applications as accessible as possible. That is, they should work without scripting and without stylesheets. JavaScript and CSS should only be used to enhance the experience. They should not be required.

SproutCore and Cappuccino are frameworks for front-end development that require the user to have both JavaScript and CSS enabled. Your question is around how we reconcile this with the dogma of the day.

Unfortunately, I don't have a clear-cut answer. I like the fact that SproutCore and Cappuccino (and probably others) are testing the limits of what's possible within a web browser. I also believe firmly that information and services provided on the web should be available to as many people as possible, given the limitations of the technology.

How you approach your solutions needs to be based on a deep knowledge of your user-base. If you're working on an iPhone app, you don't need to worry about traditional web accessibility because the experience is intensely visual. If you're building a web application for a general audience, these new frameworks are probably a poor choice (if you value the widest possible access to your information and services).

Over time, screen reader software is likely to get better at interpreting JavaScript-heavy interfaces, so perhaps this issue will fade. Thing is, something else is likely to "sprout" up in its place.

Answer 6

Javascript is a Web standard — certainly more so than, say, Flash, which was previously (and still often is) used for rich Web applications. In this regard, SproutCore and Cappuccino are giant improvements in my book.

The question here really seems to be how important accessibility is. And that is largely a personal decision based, as Andrew said, on knowing your users. For some apps, accessibility really doesn't make that much sense — 280 Slides is a good example of this. It's a graphic design app that's largely about visual behaviors. It doesn't make very much sense for it to degrade to plaintext. (At least, a text-based app meant to accomplish what 280 Slides does would be really be a completely different thing.)