Re: Notes on the process

Jon Bosak wrote:
> The case we're addressing with the recent decision about error
> handling has to do specifically with the competitive landscape in Web
> browsers.  There is nothing in the new language that prevents Web
> browsers from handling error recovery any way they like.  What they
> can't do is to behave in a way that doesn't conform to the spec and
> *advertise themselves* as XML browsers.  

Does the spec use the word browser? Does an "XML browser" have to have
an XML processor in it? "We are an XML browser, but we do not use an XML
processor to parse the data."

If all we care about is browsers why not say the word "browsers",
"user agents", "display agents" or something similarly clear. 

> In other words, it gives the
> browser vendors a stick with which to beat each other up if they start
> playing games with the XML specification.

When is the last time you saw one of these companies beat each other up
over the technical details of a specification? Is Microsoft releasing
press releases about Netscape's failure to properly center tables? Has
Netscape pointed out Microsoft's non-adherenance to the file upload RFC?

Press releases and "initiatives" can change the industry's competitive
landscape. The *existance of* specifications can change the industry's
competitive landscape. Minute features of specifications cannot.
 
> I confess to being a little disappointed with the inability of some
> people in this group to understand that this is not a technical issue
> but rather a unique opportunity to change our industry's competitive
> landscape.  

I thought that technical specifications were about technology.
Idealistic? Naive? Guilty as charged. I wouldn't be here otherwise.

 Paul Prescod

Received on Friday, 9 May 1997 14:48:42 UTC