- From: Leif Halvard Silli <lhs@malform.no>
- Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:13:12 +0200
- To: Laura Carlson <laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com>
- CC: Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@apple.com>, "Dailey, David P." <david.dailey@sru.edu>, Larry Masinter <masinter@adobe.com>, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>, HTML WG <public-html@w3.org>
Laura Carlson On 09-05-31 22.11: > David wrote: > >>> Our WG's mail archives reveal numerous examples of historic instances where >>> reinventing the wheel proved to be good technology policy > > Maciej replied: > >> this principle states a design preference > > That is one of the problems with the document. Ambiguous preferences > masquerade as principles. > > The "Do not Reinvent the Wheel" principle in Maciej and Anne’s > editor's draft currently says, “If there is already a widely used and > implemented technology covering particular use cases, consider > specifying that technology in preference to inventing something new > for the same purpose. Sometimes, though, new use cases may call for a > new approach instead of more extensions on an old approach.” Now that you quote it, it is funny how this sounds very much like the "consider cowpaths" principle ... > Such language in principles nullifies. It is meaningless. It is not > measurable. Does the principle ban reinventing the wheel or not? If > yes, say so and leave it at that; if no, forget the rule. +1 > Principles that use wishy-washy rhetoric are not principles at all. > They are judgment calls, completely subjective to the personal opinion > of the person invoking the principle or authoring the spec. One of the HTML _4_ design principles went something like this: "add tables". You could argue that "add tables" is not a principle. But it is very measurable. The HTML 5 principles, OTOH, are more "principle-like", but fails to follow its very own "Priority of Constituencies" principle [1]: In case of conflict, consider users over authors over implementors over specifiers over theoretical purity. In other words: They would have been more helpful if they did not insist on theoretical purity with regard to what a principle looks like, but instead had focused on measurable goals. [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/html-design-principles/#priority-of-constituencies -- leif halvard silli
Received on Monday, 1 June 2009 00:13:52 UTC