Re: Comparison of Standard and Proprietary Technologies

I would question the assumption that standards are developed less quickly
than proprietary technologies.  Although proprietary technologies can be
_introduced_ by any browser on a whim, this does not place the code at the
disposal of website developers.  Even developers who target only IE
browsers would not choose code that breaks all previous versions!.  The
installed base is too large, and WYSIWYG editors aren't exactly
cutting-edge either.  As a result, proprietary technologies enjoy the a
similar trickle-down effect that standards do.

The majority of proprietary code washing around out there on the Internet
is quite old, is it not?

Standards may take longer to introduce, but they generally evolve in a more
predictable fashion, and (one hopes) devolve cleanly on browsers that came
before them.  So they may be out of the starting gate later, but ready for
market acceptance sooner.  The end result should leave no clear speed
advantage for proprietary markup, I feel.

-Joseph

Received on Thursday, 11 July 2002 12:28:41 UTC