Re: An HTML language specification vs. a browser specification

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 8:45 PM, Robert J Burns <rob@robburns.com> wrote:
> I didn't intend to cause such a reaction. I thought it was clear that the
> strengths of the current editor was in the area of browser behavior (and not
> so much parsing and certainly not HTML authoring vocabulary).

How browsers parse HTML *is* how HTML must be parsed. Or at least that
is the case if you presume that current HTML has been written for
browsers and by testing what works in current browsers.

As a browser maker I've seen lots of indication that this is the case.
I.e. I get many more bugs filed that says "my page doesn't work in
firefox, but it works in IE, please fix firefox" than "my page was
written according to the HTML4 spec but it doesn't work in firefox,
please fix firefox".

> TAG and others
> have wondered whether the work on HTML 5 could benefit from some division of
> labor and I simply wanted to suggest that those three areas would be a great
> way to modularize this effort. If we were to follow that approach, i think
> Ian should remain the editor of the browser behavior draft. The other two
> areas (parsing and vocabulary) could go to other editors.

Again, you have to parse HTML the way browsers do it, otherwise you
won't be able to parse any HTML on the web.

I don't really understand this talk about there being a "browser"
behavior and a "other" behavior of parsing HTML. Maybe I'm missing
something? Or are you perhaps referring to parsing "valid" vs.
"invalid" HTML?

/ Jonas

Received on Saturday, 15 November 2008 07:25:26 UTC