Re: The argument for |bugmode| (was Re: If we have versioning, it should be in an attribute, not the doctype)

Henri Sivonen wrote:
> 
> On Apr 19, 2007, at 04:18, Lachlan Hunt wrote:
> 
>> It would really help if you would actually do some research about (or 
>> at least listen to) what authors actually want, instead of being 
>> presumptuous.
> 
> To find out what authors want (in the sense that is useful for designing 
> a bug mode switch that has to work with the real author behavior in the 
> common case), one should look at the reactions of authors to past 
> stimuli (instances of browser changes, etc.) instead of believing what 
> they say they want.
> 

Indeed, although in this case the past stimulus (a single doctype-based 
mode switch that affected rendering in all major browsers) is 
considerably different from what is being proposed for the future 
(multiple modes working in only a single browser tying the rendering to 
specific releases of that browser). The circumstances under which an 
IE-specific opt-in should be used ("if you are serving different content 
to IE and other browsers through any HTTP/HTML/DOM/CSS differentiation") 
are very different from those in which you want to trigger the exisitng 
standards modes ("if you want the browser to have as few rendering bugs 
as possible"). Given that, it's not entirely clear that we would see the 
same pattern of use in the two situations i.e. the fact that a number of 
the top 200 sites use standards mode but break in IE7 does not mean that 
the same fraction of sites would be broken in IE7 if they'd had the 
option of including a well-documented IE6-mode switch, even if 
"standards mode" continued to trigger the new IE7 behavior. Those sites 
that did break could trivially have added the switch during the IE7 beta 
period.

-- 
"Instructions to follow very carefully.
Go to Tesco's.  Go to the coffee aisle.  Look at the instant coffee. 
Notice that Kenco now comes in refil packs.  Admire the tray on the 
shelf.  It's exquiste corrugated boxiness. The way how it didn't get 
crushed on its long journey from the factory. Now pick up a refil bag. 
Admire the antioxidant claim.  Gaze in awe at the environmental claims 
written on the back of the refil bag.  Start stroking it gently, its my 
packaging precious, all mine....  Be thankful that Amy has only given 
you the highlights of the reasons why that bag is so brilliant."
-- ajs

Received on Thursday, 19 April 2007 08:32:13 UTC