Re: HTML WG Obsolete?

Brandon Plewe writes:

[...]

>If the HTML standard wants to win out in the end, there is only one 
>answer: we have to ***show*** everybody the virtues of TrueHTML, not 
>just explain them.
>
>There *must* be a top-notch browser that is truly committed to the 
>HTML standard (not this proposal-submission-a-week-before-release 
>crap that Netscape tries to pass off as "committed", or Eolas' 
>change-a-letter-in-the-tag-and-patent-it).  Somebody needs to 
>support 100% of HTML 3.0, even as fluid as it is, to compete 
>directly with Netscape, Microsoft, and Eolas.

[...]

I don't know much about how WGs work, but is it thinkable for HTML WG 
to actively search a vendor that would implement the standard and 
start co-operating with them? I mean something like exchanging a 
"HTML WG Seal of Approval" for a guarantee of following HTML 3.0 
faithfully and consulting the WG before changes in implementation. 
Does that sound feasible? From the vendors' point of view conformance 
to the standard could make a great marketing strategy - changes in 
information technology happen so fast these days, and I'm sure people 
would gladly welcome a product that by virtue of implementing a 
stable standard promises to be useful for a couple of months at 
least :). They could stress the profits from using a HTML 3.0 browser 
"as opposed to ordinary browsers that use inferior proprietary 
solutions". It could work. 

I feel though that it would be necessary to implement a stylesheet 
mechanism as well. I've got an impression that the mechanisms 
developed so far are more than enough for a commercial 
implementation. Alas, nobody seems to be interested, and we're left 
with Arena, which clearly is not intended for widespread use. My 
guess is that, frames or no frames, anybody who implements 
stylesheets will have thousands of pages "enhanced for XYZ" in a week.
Allow people to specify things like font, size, color, paragraph 
formatting (dropcaps etc.), alignment etc. _without tinkering with 
HTML tags_ and you'll draw a large percentage of Netscape users to 
your product.

>Brandon Plewe
>University at Buffalo

--
  ___ ___ 
 / __/ __   Grzesiek Staniak    -   gstaniak@golem.umcs.lublin.pl
| (_ \__ \                      - http://www.lublin.pl/~gstaniak/
 \___|___/  ****___Speaking for myself, not the university___****

Received on Thursday, 21 September 1995 01:18:09 UTC