Re: review of content type rules by IETF/HTTP community

On Aug 24, 2007, at 3:36 AM, Julian Reschke wrote:

>
>> ...
>> Furthermore, that requirement would be ignored. If you can get a  
>> browser vendor to actually implement the above in a way you  
>> consider acceptable, then I'd consider putting it in the spec --  
>> but there's no point putting something in which every single  
>> browser vendor has repeatedly told me and others that they would  
>> never do.
>> Browser vendors don't implement specs they disagree with. As spec  
>> authors, we only have power over user agent implementors so long as  
>> we tell them to do things they want to do anyway.
>
> ...which would mean that we (== the HTML WG) have no power at all.
>
> I would consider that a major issue, and would like to hear what the  
> vendors actually have to say about it.

I think what Ian says is true only for extreme cases, but not at the  
margins. There are lots of issues where browser vendors would be happy  
with any of a number of resolutions. Being interoperable with other  
browsers is more important than opinion about particular technical  
details.

But there are some things we would probably find unacceptable. For  
example, requirements that overly constrain the user interface are  
unlikely to be followed, since that is not an area that is not  
relevant to interoperability and we must have the freedom to apply our  
own usability judgment. Similarly, requirements that would wildly  
break compatibility with existing content would be unlikely to be  
followed. For example, requiring that the width and height attributes  
on <img> be ignored would not be workable.

Regards,
Maciej

Received on Friday, 24 August 2007 19:51:01 UTC