Chris Johnston

Zeldman.com and stopdesign.com both have articles up about the difference between semantics and standards when it comes to web design. The shocking truth that both of these posts are asserting is that they are not the same thing. One can create valid xhtml code without it being semantically correct and vice versa.
This is an interesting topic that I have never really put much thought into. However, I must say that I agree with both of them. Although Douglas Bowman (Stopdesign) does state that the one should logically flow from the other, i.e. as you learn proper, standards compliant coding practises you should naturally gravitate to semantically correct code.

I have found that in my own designs, although not totally semantically correct, the desire to produce the simplest XHTML possible naturally lends itself to producing semantic code. The only way to create simple markup is to use h tags, p tags, and lists as opposed to using divs, spans, and tables.

This topic will definitely be something that I will keep in mind as I move forward in my own web design education.

Here are links to three blog articles on this subject
www.zeldman.com
www.stopdesign.com
www.kottke.org