Technical information

The code used throughout the site is XHTML1, which can be verified by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at their validation website. The site has been tested to look reasonably identical for all version 4+ browsers. Intrusive javascript has been deliberately avoided, as have proprietary technologies such as Shockwave Flash.

A variety of browers have been used to test the site, including Internet Explorer 4, 5, 6, Netscape 3, 4.x and 6, Opera, Lynx, w3m, on a variety of OS platforms.

The site also makes extensive use of stylesheets, which enable standardisation across the whole site and an up-to-date look. Again, the stylesheet use, which conforms to the CCS standard, can be certified at the W3C's validation website. In designing the site, attention has been given to ensuring backward compatibility with older browsers.

Work has been done to ensure that fonts are resizable while reasonably similar across different browsers.

The site has been programmed in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines published by the W3C.

The world's leading webserver software, the Open-source Apache, is used to run the site.

Server-side scripting and a variety of error reporting mechanisms are in use to automate the operation and updating of the site.

Software used to construct the site includes Macromedia Homesite, coded by hand.