Edict on coding standards

Edict on coding standards

In order to maintain a high quality of experience for users of our website, I hereby promulgate this Edict on coding standards.

HTML, XHTML and wikicode

No HTML elements listed as "deprecated" by the World Wide Web Consortium are permitted. See

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/index/elements.html and http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp This includes but is not limited to "FONT", "CENTER", "U".

All HTML is forbidden but some XHTML may be acceptable. That is, HTML tags must conform to the standard of XHTML tags, which must be lower case and which must always be properly closed. If you don't know what this means, don't use these things until you do know what this means.

No XHTML will be used when equivalent wikicode is available.

Visual styling

Any Visual styling will be done using standards-compliant CSS. With few exceptions, relative dimensions are preferable to absolute dimensions.

No HTML or XHTML elements will be used to create "white space". Doing so breaks the style sheets.

Headings

Heading will follow a strict hierarchy. Headings provide a logical structure for the content of an article. They are not decorative elements. Using them as such breaks the style sheets.

Level 1 headings ("=Heading=") are forbidden. They are reserved for the article title.

Level 2 headings ("==Heading==") are the highest level acceptable. There may be more than one level 2 heading in an article.

Level 3 headings ("===Heading===") must follow a level 2 heading. There may be more than one level 3 heading after a level 2 heading.

Level 4 headings ("====Heading====") must follow a level 3 heading. There may be more than one level 4 heading after a level 3 heading.

Level 5 headings ("=====Heading=====") must follow a level 4 heading. There may be more than one level 5 heading after a level 4 heading. Level 4 headings are rare.

Level 6 headings ("======Heading======") must follow a level 5 heading. There may be more than one level 6 heading after a level 5 heading. Level 5 headings are extremely rare.

There are no higher level headings.

Violations

Persons who violate these standards may be banned from editing for a period of time to be determined by the magister aranearius. The purpose of the ban will be to provide an opportunity for the banned person to learn how to comply with these standards.

Comment

It is possible for a person to edit productively for a very long time without ever needing to worry about any of this. Anyone involved with anything mentioned in this edict is by definition involved in "major editing". Most edits are minor edits.

by my hand a.d. IV Non. Nov. M. Moravio T. Iulio cos.

M. Lucretius Agricola

Magister aranearius Novae Romae