- From: Henri Sivonen <hsivonen@iki.fi>
- Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 09:56:14 +0300
- To: Chris Wilson <Chris.Wilson@microsoft.com>
- Cc: James Graham <jg307@cam.ac.uk>, "public-html@w3.org" <public-html@w3.org>
On Apr 13, 2007, at 01:34, Chris Wilson wrote: > Henri Sivonen [mailto:hsivonen@iki.fi] wrote: >> I am *not* advocating version-based opt-in to bug fixes, but if the >> opt-in idea were to be generalized, I think the generalization would >> not be declaring the HTML version but something like >> <html browser-engine-bugs-as-of='2007-04-12'>. > > Indeed, I'm saying IE will do exactly that kind of mechanism. But > stamping the HTML with what spec version it was created with will > allow us to automatically move that opt-in forward. Since spec versions and IE (or other browser versions) don't go hand in hand, I don't think that the spec version is the crux of the matter here. The crux of the matter is which browser versions were current when the designer tested the page design. Therefore, if there is an opt-in mechanism, the logical flag would not be the spec version but the date when the design was tested against then-current browsers. Still, any arrangement that involves an ever-expanding set of modes based on the bug sets of IE releases would make implementing Web browsers progressively harder, which would be bad as Hixie pointed out. The parallels with word processor formats are obvious. Quoting from the OOXML spec to illustrate where the ever-expanding modes would be going: | 2.15.3.51 suppressTopSpacingWP (Emulate WordPerfect 5.x Line Spacing) | | This element specifies that applications shall emulate the behavior of a | previously existing word processing application (WordPerfect 5.x) when | determining the resulting spacing between lines in a paragraph using the | spacing element (§2.3.1.33). This emulation typically results in line | spacing which is reduced from its normal size. | | [Guidance: To faithfully replicate this behavior, applications must | imitate the behavior of that application, which involves many possible | behaviors and cannot be faithfully placed into narrative for this Office | Open XML Standard. If applications wish to match this behavior, they | must utilize and duplicate the output of those applications. It is | recommended that applications not intentionally replicate this behavior | as it was deprecated due to issues with its output, and is maintained | only for compatibility with existing documents from that application. | end guidance] I think the Web should avoid going there. -- Henri Sivonen hsivonen@iki.fi http://hsivonen.iki.fi/
Received on Friday, 13 April 2007 06:56:30 UTC