- From: Silvia Pfeiffer <silviapfeiffer1@gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 11:56:24 +1000
On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 11:44 AM, Ian Hickson<ian at hixie.ch> wrote: > On Mon, 6 Jul 2009, Robert O'Callahan wrote: >> >> Specs do generate demand --- by creating author expectation that a >> feature will be supported, by adding a well-known brand, and because >> test suites get created which vendors then compete on. > > On Mon, 6 Jul 2009, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote: >> >> I agree: standards generate demand. It is how h.264 hardware support >> originated - by making it a ISO standard, the vendors knew there would >> be sufficient market demand for it and created the chips. > > I disagree with both these statements, I don't think they are in fact > accurate. Demand can be focused around a specification if one exists, but > a specification cannot create demand, and the lack of a specification is > not an impediment to deployment. We have seen both facets of this > repeatedly demonstrated through the lifetime of the Web, not least of > which by HTML itself. Indeed, cutting features that didn't have demand > despite being in HTML4 for a decade is one of HTML5's achievements. It's not the standard alone that makes it happen. The standard is for the general market neither a necessary nor a sufficient requirement for uptake. However, for the individual vendor, a standard and the perception that the market is adopting it will be a sufficient requirement to make a decision to create a product. Lacking the standard, just the perception that the market is adopting makes taking that decision just that much harder. Regards, Silvia.
Received on Sunday, 5 July 2009 18:56:24 UTC