Re: [CSS21] body { padding: 8px; } HTML40 sample stylesheet

> And this is desirable exactly why? What's the point of using different
> browsers if they need to do just the same?

Because UAs may be on different platforms. The user doesn't always have 
a choice what browser they use, so they should be able to rely on it 
behaving like the others.

> But this raises the question whether the sample style sheets are really
> meant to serve uniformity - which, combined with the idea of just
> describing what browsers actually do, would mean that browsers should 
> keep
> imitating the default presentation style of old browsers. 
> Canonicalizing
> Mosaic, so to say. There's quite a lot in the "traditional" rendering 
> that
> reflects rather random and ill-advised decisions, like "Mosaic 
> paragraphs"
> with gaps between, equal spacing before and after a heading, and 
> bullets
> as list markers as opposite to the dashes of typography.
>
> I had always though that the sample style sheets aimed, to some extent 
> at
> least, at _good default rendering_ in browsers. Similarity of rendering
> would be a side effect, not the goal. But I'm afraid I have been even 
> more
> naive than I thought.

I don't really think that the sample sheets are going to be a big 
player in changing or maintaining the status quo in UA behaviour, it's 
not really fair to point this at you. It would just be nice if UA 
behaviour was visually as well as structurally consistent to a greater 
degree.

Ben


(q)	Ben Godfrey?
(a)	Web Developer and Designer
	See http://aftnn.org/ for details

Received on Thursday, 24 July 2003 18:19:15 UTC