Re: Support Existing Content (was: Proposed Design Principles review)

On 1 May 2007, at 01:30, David Hyatt wrote:

>
> In the case of CSS3, these specs are broken up into modules, so a  
> browser vendor can pick and choose which modules to conform to.   
> It's a little different from HTML at the moment, which is shaping  
> up to be a monolithic single spec.  In general, because of the  
> modular breakup, I do think a browser vendor is free to pick and  
> choose the CSS3 modules to implement.

I don't see how this could ever, possibly, be a good thing, with CSS  
or HTML.
We already have specs for several versions of HTML, and I don't think  
a single browser implements to the same level, hence all the  
interoperability problems. Letting browser vendors pick and choose,  
(which is what I suspect they will do anyway, as they have openly  
admitted this) will lead to LESS interoperability than before.

I am not trying to advocate a "browser vendors must do this"  
approach, but why can't we agree on an HTML5 spec which everyone will  
implement in the same way, and if authors want to use 'extras' that  
are supplied only by one browser (which should be discouraged anyway)  
thy should be the ones that have to jump through hoops to enable them.

As I've said before, if this is the direction the group is taking,  
basically documenting what we have and only what everyone will  
implement, HTML will stagnate and we will always have the huge mess  
we have right now. HTML5 should be the opportunity to become  
something a lot nearer perfection.

Gareth

Received on Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:05:07 UTC