When reading through a number of HTML/CSS blog posts and comment sections I’ve come across the term “deprecated” quite a few times. At first I ignored it, but after about the 1,589th time seeing it I decided it would be worthwhile to get the formal definition.
I found an easy to understand definition on techtarget.com. Basically a deprecated HTML/CSS tag is a tag that is allowed, but it is not recommend and/or is discouraged. Other methods should be used to achieve the outcome.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I read that the <center> tag had been deprecated. Yes, one can still use the tag and the browser will center the content, but it is preferred to use CSS properties such as ‘margin: auto’, ‘text-align: center’, etc. for centering purposes.
It is unclear to me if once a tag is deprecated if that means it will eventually be unsupported by browsers. I don’t know the answer to that, but at least I am clear on what the term means and that it is best for me as a beginner to follow standard practice. I haven’t been using any deprecated tags in my coding, but I’ll be sure to continue to avoid them at all costs going forward.