The Test of Time

If you've ever written a document that was meant to last a considerable time into the future, you will recognize that a lot of attention must be paid to getting things just right.

Consider the publishing industry, for example. This book has been through edits and reviews by multiple people to tighten the language and check the facts. Because books tend to stay on people's shelves much longer than a Web page stays in a browser's cache, all this work has to be done in advance to make sure the final result is a manuscript that is accurate. (Knock on wood!)

Simultaneously convenient and problematic, the Web has no such limitations. A Web site is uniquely served from a computer every time a viewer accesses it. Generally this means that you can go in and make content or design changes after the publishing date. Every returning visitor will see the changes, unlike a book, which doesn't change until it is updated or a second edition is printed. Of course, the temptation to continue tweaking and refining often proves great, much to the chagrin of designers who have signed a fixed contract.

Though it lives on the Web, the Zen Garden presented some unique challenges that made writing the underlying HTML more akin to writing a book than a Web site. Modifying the markup after designs started coming in would break the older submissions and unfairly change the goals of the site. Editing the text would alter the size of the document and perhaps modify the layout of certain designs in an unpredictable manner. Making any structural or visual changes would be detrimental, so the HTML needed to remain precisely as written.