Green Code

Here's an idea I've been thinking about.

What if we make a movement to save the world one byte at a time? Maybe this is a bit far-fetched, but I am notorious for pushing towards clean code. Well-formed code. Validating code. Unobtrusive code. And now? Green code.

What this means: take your Web design to the next level. Don't follow standards simply because it's the best way to write code. Do it because it's the best way to achieve less bloated code – green code. The less bloated and fat with code a Web site is, the lighter and easier to send it is.

Think of it this way. How much does it cost to send a one page paper letter? Compare that to a one page letter written in stone. How much do you think that would cost? Now let's transfer financial cost to energy cost. How much lighter would it be to send a one page piece of paper than one of stone? Energy and power is required to send data to computers from servers. The larger the file, the more energy, power, and time the page takes. Save energy. Write efficient code.

To learn how to write standards compliant code using XHTML, CSS, and DOM scripting, I recommend reading W3Schools.com for a primer, check out books from the library (if you must, purchase them, but reusing is always best), see the standards documents at W3C, check at the Web Standards group… reduce the noise, reduce the clutter. Let's start the green web. 🙂

Anyone think this a good idea? I'm all for using it as an extra excuse to go the extra mile in efficiency.