Re: View Source

Hi, Rick-

Rick wrote (on 3/16/09 9:31 PM):
> On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 8:51 PM, Jeff Schiller<codedread@gmail.com>  wrote:
>>  On 3/16/09, Doug Schepers<schepers@w3.org>  wrote:
>>  HTML WG members have stated that they will not put any UI requirements
>>  in HTML and leave them as *should* statements or recommendations or
>>  whatever because it might not make sense for every UA... I personally
>>  think your conditional requirement is fine.  In the end, browser
>>  vendors are free to implement whatever parts of the spec though, so
>>  even if it was a conditional requirement, some browsers might just
>>  ignore it.
>
> I totally agree with the sentiment that the spec should not dictate UI
> requirements.

Why?

I don't agree with it, as a developer, because I want to have certain 
constants in my application development environment that go beyond 
rendering the document.  This is a big advantage that environments like 
Air and Silverlight have.

For example, the Adobe SVG Viewer (ASV) had a customizable context 
(right-click) menu, and many of us doing SVG development used (and 
depended on) that to provide functionality for the end user.  Similarly, 
ASV had pan and zoom control, so we could count on them being there. 
Without those UI bits, authors have had to roll their own context menus 
and zoom controls, which is not as trivial as it may sound, and which 
isn't time well spent.

There are UI features everyone today counts on, merely on convention... 
the status bar, tooltips, alerts, scrollbars, etc.  If we are trying to 
create a rich and compelling development platform, I see no harm in 
specifying such conventions, even if only as a SHOULD.  There may be 
good reasons for browser vendors not to include those UI features if 
they choose not to... which is appropriate for a SHOULD.  It's not a 
matter of trying to "dictate UI requirements", it's a matter of 
solidifying a social contract with developers and users, and suggesting 
to implementers what conventions they should consider.  Those may change 
over time... all well and good, so do languages.

I don't understand this particular taboo.

Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, SVG and WebApps WGs

Received on Tuesday, 17 March 2009 01:53:19 UTC