On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 12:26 PM, Thomas Lord <lord@emf.net> wrote: > The maxim "Be tolerant in what you receive, strict in what > you transmit" applies here. > On the Web, content is produced to suit what Web browsers do, not what specs say. Thus, wherever Web browsers differ in their "tolerance", interoperability problems arise. If the spec says the rootstring SHOULD be null, but many Web authors only test with "tolerant" browsers that accept non-null rootstrings, and authoring tools sometimes create non-null rootstrings, then pages will proliferate with non-null rootstrings and all browsers will be forced to tolerate them. The de-facto standard overrides the de jure standard, and the de jure standard would be better to reflect reality by saying that browsers MUST accept (but ignore) non-null rootstrings. So, saying the rootstring SHOULD be null has no value. The spec could say the rootstring MUST be null, in which case we must ensure major browsers strictly check that, or the real world will diverge from the spec. Otherwise the spec should be silent about the null-ness of the rootstring. Generally in Web specs "SHOULD" requirements indicate a looming interoperability problem. Rob -- "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." [Isaiah 53:5-6]
Received on Friday, 31 July 2009 02:59:20 UTC