HTML is the new typing

Came across a thought-provoking question at BelowTheLine - is HTML the new typing?

Reminds me of the old Dilbert cartoon (which doesn't seem to be online anywhere I can find) in which Ratbert complains that he never bothered to learn how to type because there were secretaries to do that, and then suddenly computers were everywhere and he was helpless because he had no idea how to use them.

There are already enough web applications that assume, or massively benefit from, a basic knowledge of HTML on the part of the user. In a handful of years the "don't we have programmers to do the HTML?" defence will look as plausible as "don't we have secretaries to do the typing?" does now.

Comments

[jamescoops]

interesting idea - i read somewhere else that myspace has spread html coding and CSS hacking into the mainstream for teenagers and so on.

[Devon Dudgeon]

Thanks for your comments on my blog post. I enjoyed your take on it.

[Juliette White]

This is something that comes up for me a lot - various people I work with know HTML reasonably well whereas others don't at all and I have to develop means for all of them to publish content of various sorts. And don't start to talk to me about people copying and pasting word documents.

It's relatively subtle because of where you draw the lines of 'knowing' HTML. Do you expect people to know how to use tables and when not to? How do you make people write HTML that is accessible? Even with text editors, you can't stop people using bold rather than headings, or make people use proper lists rather than type in numbers.

I want to empower the people who do know HTML, and I always feel a bit sorry for the people who don't as it'd make life so much easier for them, but at the same time I want our pages to validate and be accessible.