Div Soup
Div Soup is a pejorative term in web development that describes HTML code that is overly reliant on generic <div> elements for structure and styling, often at the expense of semantic HTML elements. It results in markup that is difficult to read, maintain, and accessibly interpret, as it lacks meaningful structure and context. This practice is generally discouraged because it can lead to bloated, inefficient code and poor user experiences, especially for assistive technologies.
Developers should learn about Div Soup to understand its pitfalls and avoid it in their projects, as it negatively impacts code maintainability, SEO, and accessibility. It is particularly relevant when working on large-scale or long-term web applications where clean, semantic HTML is crucial for performance and compliance with web standards like WCAG. Recognizing and refactoring Div Soup helps improve collaboration, debugging, and overall code quality.