Re: Versioning and html[5]

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