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A talk I did at the first London WSG meeting in 2006 about the history of the screw.
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Who Cares AboutStandards?
1by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
A Brief History of Standards
2by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
Early Standards
3by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
• Stones used as a unit of weight in 7th century BC Egypt
• In 1120 King Henry I created the ell unit of length
• Meter first used in 1797
However, the history of modern standards…
…is the history of the screw
4by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
Invented by the Greeks in 5th Century BC
• The “Archimedes Screw” was used to draw water and irrigate farms
• Screws were used to press clothes, olives and wine
• Romans created the first wood screws from bronze or silver
• Screws were lost with the fall of the Roman Empire
5by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
6by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
Rediscovered during the Renaissance
• First written reference in the 1400s
• Used in the Guttenburg Press
• Leonardo Da Vinci influenced by the screw
Not all screws were made equal
7by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
• Screws were hand turned and each one was different
• Nuts and bolts had to be matched by hand
• Impractical and Inefficient
The Lathe
8by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
• Leonardo Da Vinci designed a screw cutting machine
• First actual machine built by Jaques Besson in 1568
• The modern lathe was created in 1797 by Henry Maudsley
This all changed thanks to Sir Joseph Whitworth
• Whitworth was Henry Maudsleys apprentice
• Became foreman in Charles Babbage’s engineering works
• Suggested the first screw standards in 1841
•By 1860 the Whitworth screw was in general use in Great Britain
9by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
The American Standard
• On 21st April 1864, William Sellers proposed a new US standard screw thread
• By 1883, most US railroads used the Sellers thread
• Britain adopted this thread towards the end of World War 2
• Became one of the first official standards
• Today there are over 800,000 different standards
10by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
What are standards?
11by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
Definition 1: An agreed set of rules or characteristics
12
Standards are all around us
13
Standard units such as the meter, kilogram and secondStandard screw fittings such as "slotted" and "PhillipsStandard bed sizes such as double, queen and kingStandard media formats such as VHS, CD and DVD
Benefits of standards
14
Standards ease communication.e.g. You can tell somebody the train station is 100m away and they know how far you mean.
Standards encourage interoperability. e.g. You plug your DVD player into your TV and you know it will work.
Standards make life easier.e.g. You can buy a toaster without having to worry that the plug will fit your socket
Definition 2: An agreed measure of quality
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Standards are all around us
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British standard kite markInternational Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)Chartered accountant or engineerHotel star ratingPADI 5 star diving centreEU energy ratingMichelin starCORGI registered gas fitter
Benefits of standards
17
Standards ensure safety and durability.e.g. Goods or services with a BSI kite mark should be safe and fit for purpose.
Standards guarantee a level of expertise.e.g. To become a chartered accountant, you have to have achieved a certain level of experience and knowledge.
Standards are a mark of professionalism.e.g. Though not required to teach diving, being a PADI instructor shows that you are a professional.
Types of standards
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OfficialDe-factoOpenProprietary
What’s this got to do with the web?
19by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
Browser Wars
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The languages that power the web were developed over time by the browser manufacturersBy creating their own standards, they hoped to force out the competitionBy the mid 90s many websites were browser specific
The March to Standards
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The W3C created a set of language recommendationsDeveloper pressure helped force browser supportAll modern browsers support there recommendations.Some better than othersThese recommendations became known as “web standards”
The Standards Philosophy
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Separating structure, presentation and behaviourAdding meaning to a documentWriting quality code that will last
Benefits of web standards
23
Standards ease communication.If the site is built using standards, it’s much easier to hand over to other developers
Standards encourage interoperability. Sites are more accessible and forward compatible
Standards make life easier.The code is easier to maintain. Easy to make site-wide changes
Benefits of web standards
24
Standards ensure safety and durability.Better written code will last longer
Standards guarantee a level of expertise.You need to be a reasonably proficient developer to build sites using web standards
Standards are a mark of professionalism.Insisting on web standards helps separate the professionals from the cowboys
However the standards aren't perfect
25
Standards based sites aren't necessarily faster loading than non-standards sitesLarge CSS files are difficult to maintain. Particularly thanks to the cascadePresentation is still tied to structure (to a certain extent)CSS layout is less than idealInconsistent browser implementation(X)HTML and CSS development is stalling
Web standards are becoming irrelevant
26by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
…and that’s a good thing
Most clients don’t care about standards…
…and why should they?
27by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
A change of focus
• Information Architecture
• Usability
• User Experience
• Design
• Branding
• Client and user goals
28by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
I don’t care about standards…
…and neither should you
29by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
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Thank You
30by Andy Budd of Clearleft.com
http://www.andybudd.com/wsg2006