- From: Shane McCarron <shane@aptest.com>
- Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:01:48 -0500
- To: Dave Singer <singer@apple.com>
- CC: robert@ocallahan.org, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>, Adam Barth <w3c@adambarth.com>, Larry Masinter <masinter@adobe.com>, "ietf-http-wg@w3.org" <ietf-http-wg@w3.org>, public-html@w3.org
Dave Singer wrote: > > (It's also odd to have a spec. which bars the user agent from 'going > the extra mile'. Specs classically say all the things you must do to > be conformant, and generally can't stop you from doing more.) Exactly! Most modern standards and "recommendations" define what happens when presented with conforming input, and implicitly or explicitly state that non-conforming input results unspecified or undefined behavior (see *all* the IEEE POSIX standards, for example). It is an unparalleled act of hubris that this work attempts not only to define good behavior, but also to define *positive* behavior in the face of bad data. That's just insane. If it is critical to define the behavior of implementations when handed invalid input, then say that the implementation is required to tell the user "the input is broken"! Defining that an implementation will somehow cleverly deal with every broken piece of input is not just silly, it's impossible. Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong (with apologies to Dennis Miller). > > > At 23:31 -0500 6/16/09, Shane McCarron wrote: >> This is my favorite comment in this thread, bar none! Why, oh why >> are you all trying so hard to continue to support broken behavior >> instead of slapping down the people who insist on doing it wrong? If >> the user agents (go Firefox!) just refused to sniff, then no one >> would send nonsense content. 'cause it wouldn't work. >> Robert O'Callahan wrote: >>> I should also point out that so far we have had approximately zero >>> complaints from authors about the fact that Firefox doesn't sniff. >>> >>> Rob > -- Shane P. McCarron Phone: +1 763 786-8160 x120 Managing Director Fax: +1 763 786-8180 ApTest Minnesota Inet: shane@aptest.com
Received on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 05:02:37 UTC