Re: Versioning and html[5]

Matt Freels wrote:
> Wouldn't this breakage be mitigated by allowing users to manually fall 
> back on IE7 when needed?

Such a feature would be useful for 2 groups:

1. Web developers needing to build and test for multiple IE's.  They 
wouldn't need multiple installations, if they could easily switch 
rendering engines in the same browser.  Having to run a Virtual PC just 
to test in IE6 these days is a pain.

2. Broken intranet apps.  Sys admins could configure IE to use the old 
rendering engine for their broken intranet apps.

Note: #2 should hopefully be a rare occurrence if we succeed and define 
HTML5 in a way that remains compatible with the web.  If there is 
evidence that HTML5 breaks something, *that should be fixed in the spec*

Netscape 8 did a similar thing with their IE/Firefox rendering engine 
switch, but their implementation was so messed up and obtrusive to the 
user, it failed miserably.  I'm not suggesting IE copy Netscape and 
inflict such a horrible UI on the average user, but rather give the 
necessary control to sys admins and power users who need/want it.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/

Received on Saturday, 14 April 2007 11:32:42 UTC