- From: David Woolley <forums@david-woolley.me.uk>
- Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 11:34:53 +0100
- To: www-html@w3.org
Mike S wrote: > > How can making a new version of a standard break existing pages? If an > existing page uses, for example, HTML 4.01 as its DOCTYPE, and HTML > 5.0 is published, won't that page continue to be read by browsers as > HTML 4.01? The problem is that standards don't get implemented in their entirety in an environment where most people don't know what the standards are. That means that backwards compatibility is highly desirable, as a version n+1 document may be viewed on a version n + 1/2 viewer and still benefit from some version n + 1 features. It's always been a goal of HTML and even PDF, which is controlled by the people who write the main viewer, attempts to degrade gracefully, which means that the meaning of features cannot be changed.
Received on Saturday, 28 April 2007 10:35:10 UTC