Re: Browser defaults should please the mass of authors

On Apr 21, 2008, at 21:25, Boris Zbarsky wrote:

> I think you missed David's point, which was that while this  
> reasoning might make sense in this one case, a blanket principle  
> that author convenience that trumps user convenience (which is what  
> Henri proposed) is by no means desirable, nor a given.


I'm all for user convenience, but I think the convenience impact  
analysis should include the effects of user-inconveniencing author  
behavior arising from authors disagreeing with the browser defaults.  
That is, I think having to flip a pref is the lesser inconvenience if  
it stops and arms race between authors and browsers.

Consider the Safari focus case. It's an inconvenience that Safari  
isn't keyboardable out of the box, but it is less of an inconvenience  
than Mac-based designers trying to make the focus outlines go away  
when the colors interfere with their design (actual concern from Mac  
IE 5 era). With the pref, the smart authors know that whenever a user  
sees the focus ring, the user really wants it, and clueless authors  
don't even know the focus outline is a possibility.

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen@iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/

Received on Monday, 21 April 2008 21:24:49 UTC