Paving Cowpaths

On 5/21/07, Chris Wilson <Chris.Wilson@microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>
> David P. Dailey wrote:
> >In my mind there are sorta two different things that a spec provides (and
> probably more):
> >
> >1. Instructions to folks who make browsers
> >2. Instructions to folks who make web pages
>
> As much as I'd love to subscribe to this philosophy, David, I think the
> problem is that the folks who make web pages (to make a gross
> generalization) don't read the HTML spec except as a last resort.  They type
> into Notepad (or similar text editor).  The browser is their error-checker.
>

The browser is a reality check, and the HTML spec is a fantasy.  Want to
guess how many times I have read the documentation, put together a
prototype, then found that IE or Firefox did something ... unexpected?

On balance, given the great interest expressed in making HTML5
implementations closer to the spec, there is a (outside) chance the HTML5
spec will be of more use to authors.