Re: The argument for |bugmode|

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mattraymond@earthlink.net (Matthew Raymond) wrote:

>Ah, but you fail to follow his logic. If the spec says that, by
>default, you can be non-conforming unless you opt into conformance, you
>are in fact conforming! Thus we eliminate non-conformance by redefining
>what conformance is.

I'm saying that the mere presence of a switch does not alter the 
conformance status. Given two alternate processors in one UA who 
are both conforming, a switch to choose between them does not 
suddenly make one of them non-conforming.

If a particular UA's default mode is to use a non-conforming 
processor then by default it is non-conforming. If the 
specification's conformance criteria says that one must use the 
conforming processor by default then that UA will strictly 
speaking never be conforming.

I suspect MSFT can live with this distinction.


If the standard says «This is how you identify a given document 
as “HTML5” if you are a conforming HTML5 UA.» then there 
will be no need for one UA to encourage its users to say «If 
you are the UA from “Vendor Foo”, but no other UA, I want 
you to use this particular, proprietary, optional behavior.»

You may not have need of a way to unambiguously identify the 
author's intent to utilize “HTML5”, but one member of the WG 
has expressed a need for this functionality and it behooves us 
to listen very carefully and attempt to accommodate this need.

Lets reference the Proposed Design Principles: “Solve Real 
Problems,” “Priority of Constituencies,” and 
“Well-Defined Behavior”.

If such a significant actor needs this functionality, and it 
causes no direct harm to the rest of the community, then it 
would be — by far — preferable for the standard to 
accommodate him rather then force him to invent a proprietary 
extension (over which the WG has no say and no control).


- -- 
“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep; But I have promises to keep,
  And miles to go before I sleep; And miles to go before I sleep...”

             -- Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

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Received on Friday, 20 April 2007 16:11:03 UTC