Re: webwatch-l New Web Standards Advocacy Project

At 07:54 PM 8/9/98 -0700, Kynn Bartlett wrote:
>At 07:31 p.m. 08/09/98 -0700, Ann Navarro wrote:
>>Part of the message that WSP is trying to get across, is that the demands
>>of design sometimes require implementations that don't validate: in part,
>>because of inconsistent support of the standards in the major browsers.
>>IOW, to make a design present consistently, what otherwise might be seen as
>>"bad habits" and "invalid HTML" may need to be used. 
>
>Okay, so the WSP suggests that web authors ignore the published
>vendor-neutral standards, and instead use specifics hacks just
>to get around problems in implementation?

No, I didn't say that. I said that inconsistent implementations of those
vendor-neutral standards, proffered by a body that many of the user-agent
publishers belong to, cause significant extra development effort that costs
an enormous amount of time and money. 


>and what exactly is WSP planning to do to make this
>happen?

The web site gives solid information on what the group is about. It does
not have "we plan to contact Mr. Jones, at Company X, and tell him Y." To
expect that is unrealistic. The steering committee has influential contacts
at the companies we wish to form a dialog with, and intends to use those to
get our message across. 

>I know, I know, it'll be on the website tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll
>find something that makes me think this isn't just another case
>of "form an official sounding organization because it makes us
>look more impressive, despite not having any way to accomplish the
>goals we've for ourselves."

That statement assumes much, including "not having any way to accomplish..."

As a supporter of WAI, I find it puzzling that you would deride an effort
that could result in more developers embracing CSS and other techniques
that lend themselves to more accessible web sites, should those standards
be fully and consistently implemented in browsers. 

Any further constructive commentary on the group's activities is welcome on
it's mailing list, info available from the site. 

Ann





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Received on Sunday, 9 August 1998 22:54:50 UTC