RE: Fonts WG Charter feedback

Also sprach Thomas Lord:

 > How long do you expect the web to be around?

At least 500 years. That's roughly how long the previous communication
revolution has lasted: the printed book.

 > Are those delays really that big?

A decade of work is insignificant if we believe that the end result
will be better for all. In the case of fonts, based on the current
charter proposal, I don't think the end result will be better. And the
risk of it being worse is significant; browsers might be turned into a
font police, responsible for displaying or enforcing licenses. Also,
It will send the "wait-we're-not-ready-yet" message which is
disruptive to contemporary implemetations.

 > If you maintain your attitude, maybe you should
 > just walk away from W3C entirely.  All standards
 > are pointless in the sense that you describe.

Not at all. But before starting a new heroic endeavour, it makes sense
to look around to see if we already have a solution. In the case of
fonts, I think we do. The best specification is the one we don't have
to write.

This doesn't mean that your ideas of having a generic wrapper format
is bad. But I wouldn't apply it to fonts first.

Cheers,

-h&kon
              Håkon Wium Lie                          CTO °þe®ª
howcome@opera.com                  http://people.opera.com/howcome