[...] it often feels like there’s a huge culture clash between back-end developers and front-end developers. The choices one group makes can seem crazy to the other. However, more often than not, just a little cross-functional education can go a long way towards writing code that’s better for us all.

SP: It’s been a while since I was taught any CSS or HTML — like many of us I learned through doing. What are some of the clangers you’ve heard about in schools and colleges?

CM: There are a few really good, progressive educational institutions around the world, such as the Art Institute of Atlanta (USA) and the University of Dundee (UK), but the majority of places that do have some kind of web content on their
courses don’t handle it very well. The trouble is that web development is such a mixture of science and art, and there are very few dedicated courses covering it outright. Rather, it’ll be tacked on to the end of, say, a computer science course or a graphic design course.

The computer science people often see web technologies as bad because they do not follow the same rules as so-called proper programming languages, they have a very forgiving parser, and an unpredictable runtime environment. They will teach web development starting from a back-end technology such as ASP.NET or JSP (which ties in with something they already know), and with little regard to what is spat out on the client side in terms of accessibility or semantics.

The design people often just want to create a nice design and get it up on the Web, and not worry about the code it hangs off. They will create a design then use horrible old fashioned slicing techniques in Photoshop and dump it into Dreamweaver.. Again, the front-end code suffers as a result.

With regards to clangers, I’ve seen standards-aware students being marked down because they didn’t use tables and spacer GIFs like it says on the curriculum. I’ve seen students making web sites entirely out of Flash or one big image. And I’ve seen students being taught a module about ecommerce site-building before they’re even comfortable with basic markup theory. When a student asks you a question such as, “What do you use for your web sites, XHTML or Dreamweaver?” you really know there’s a fundamental problem with how they are being taught.

SP: When I conducted web training I found it particularly challenging dealing with people who weren’t beginners, but were still stuck on using font elements and inline JavaScript. Sometimes they’d have trouble seeing how the time investment was worth the improvement. What’s the most effective way you’ve found to encourage these people to make the switch?

CM: The “old dog, new tricks” type of person is the hardest to teach, because you have to unlearn all the bad habits first. Then the argument you’ll get is often something like: “Well, I will still get paid whether I do it the old way or the new way, so why bother putting in the time and effort to learn?” With these people you just need to keep giving them the key arguments and make them as personal to them as possible, so they can identify with them more easily.

1. You’ve got your usual arguments that code is more portable, maintainable, has a smaller file size, is more accessible, and better for SEO.

2. In terms of learning difficulty, you can’t tell me that CSS is hard to learn, surely! Especially just the basics. Show them some simple examples of how powerful CSS can be to get them hooked. Wait until then to mention IE 6 bugs!

3. JavaScript learning — for these people you might as well start by showing them jQuery — this will speed up their work, regardless of whether they are using the old way or the new way. Again, get them hooked, then show them more of the underlying details.

4. Explain it in terms of accessibility — the litigation carrot, and new user markets with disabled users and mobile users

5. Explain it in terms of job security. Show them lots of job adverts for front-end developers — more and more are now requiring CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and best practices at a minimum. Do they still want to have a job in a few year’s time?