Re: CfC: close ISSUE-125 charset-vs-quotes by amicable resolution

On 23.01.2011 15:36, Anne van Kesteren wrote:
> ...
>> B) changing HTTP would break IE, for instance (see
>> <http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/attachment.cgi?id=916> for the parsing
>> in <meta>, and <http://greenbytes.de/tech/tc2231/ct1.asis> for the
>> HTTP header field). It would probably break many other non-browser
>> HTTP agents/libraries.
>
> It would only start breaking IE when people would actually start using it.
> ...

Aha.

>> What I'm really missing is a statement about WHY you would ever
>> consider something "required for compatibility with existing content"
>> when IE doesn't do it. Please elaborate.
>
> I did not say that. What I said is that it makes sense to change HTTP

It's what the spec says, and why I raised the bug.

> because double and single quotes can be used all over the Web Platform
> interchangeably. Often though more lenient syntax is more compatible and
> authors do not always test in IE. There are places where IE has
> negligible market share.

We can't change the HTTP syntax without breaking existing clients, such 
as IE but likely many others.

Furthermore, if people not testing in IE is a problem, then the right 
solution is to converge on the (correct) behavior of IE.

Best regards, Julian

Received on Sunday, 23 January 2011 14:52:41 UTC