Re: [dom3core] getAttribute

On Dec 03, 2005, at 03:18, Ray Whitmer wrote:
> I think you are making assumptions of things not in evidence, that  
> all Javascript implementations are broken in this way and there is  
> a clear dividing line.  In fact it is obvious that any number of  
> prior versions of Javascript implementations implemented correctly  
> and there are likely more in existence that are correctly  
> implemented.  We have also encountered enough cross-over during the  
> years, including from Sun, that just citing a few broken cases is a  
> long ways from authoritatively demonstrating that it is always true.

Well during this thread we've had indication of IE, FF, Safari,  
Konqueror, and Opera being broken or considering adopting the broken  
behaviour because it matches that of the others. Frankly, I know  
there are other browsers out there, but that's well enough to  
convince me that there's a problem that's not going to go away. The  
browsers won't change, because they have to deal with the two simple  
facts that existing content is an issue, and also that unless there's  
a miracle the current market leader will not change. It may be sad,  
it may be frustrating -- I certainly think it is -- but it's a  
problem that's there and on our plate.

Now I don't care if we don't get a perfect solution to this problem,  
because the simple fact of the matter is that we won't. It does seem  
to me that the biggest driver behind having standardised APIs is to  
address situations in which code will have to run on multiple  
implementations, and it also appears to me that this is a situations  
that happens by far the most often to programmers targeting browser  
environments, given that they only very occasionally have the luxury  
of targeting fewer than three or four platforms. It seems to me that  
a solution that addresses the needs of these people would be more  
perfect than one which doesn't. This doesn't mean that performing  
triage at the binding level is the best option, but that it is  
clearly better than the status quo. I'd be more than happy to hear  
suggestions from you or others for other solutions though.

-- 
Robin Berjon
    Senior Research Scientist
    Expway, http://expway.com/

Received on Saturday, 3 December 2005 16:04:23 UTC