How important is W3C XHTML/CSS validation when finalizing work? [closed]

Answer 1

I think validation is a good litmus test of whether you've done things properly, so if there are only a few minor problems, why not fix them and ensure your site will at least be understood correctly by browsers in the future (even if they do render things differently for other reasons)?

OTOH, for most projects, validation seems like a huge headache and if you can get things working across browsers, it's not worth spending an extra day/week+ on just validation.

Answer 2

a) Must look the same

b) As standards-compliant as possible, but not so anal that it blocks finishing work

In a situation where you have perpetual access to the code, I don't think standards-compliance is all that important, since you can always make changes to the code if something breaks. If you don't have perpetual access (ie, you sign off on the code and it becomes someone else's responsibility), it's probably best to be as standards-compliant as possible to minimize maintenance headaches later... even if you never have to deal with the code again, your reputation persists and can be transmitted to other potential clients, and many teams like to blame the previous developer(s) for problems that come up.

Answer 3

I think this is an area in which you should strive to use the Robustness principle as far as is practical (which is good advice for any area of coding). Just because something works today doesn't mean it will work tomorrow: if you're relying on a particular HTML/CSS hack or even if you've just been a little lax in emitting strictly valid code, the next iteration of browsers could well break. Doing it once the right way minimises this problem (though does not entirely mitigate it).

There is a certain element of pragmatism to take here, though. I'd certainly do all I could for a client's site to be valid, but I would be willing to take more risks in my own space.