Re: microsoftisms after netscapeisms ?

Robert Hazeltine said:

> On Mon, 15 Jan 1996, lilley wrote: 
> > Heh. Before we all go and slit our collective wrists, however, I would 
> > refer you to a recent W3C draft Technical Report on a new HTML element 
> > which will replace app (Sun) applet (Sun) embed (Netscape) marquee 
> > (Microsoft) bgsound (Microsoft) etc etc ..
> > 
> > And before you all go (as I did) "pah, they will never implement that" look
> > at the authors of the spec ... and reconsider. Times they are a changin'
> > 
> >   http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR/WD-insert.html
 
> This is good to see.  But I wonder why it this particular element rather 
> than some of the still unsettled issues like maths?

Probably because there was a direct benefit in all agreeing a common way
to do something they were all currently doing - but in incompatible
ways.

Math ... some people see a big need for it, others don't.
 
> > The lowest common denominator is now HTML 2.0, which defines in 
> > toe-curling detail the consensus of the state of HTML in around August 94.
> > If you want to know what is the lowest common denominator, look there.
> 
> May I ask when this passed from being a proposed spec to a fully fledged one?

If you mean the IETF usage of the term, it has not.  It needs to spend 6
months being a Proposed Standard before it becomes a full Internet
Standard.  There are however precious few of those.  I am not sure that
email, for example, is an Internet Standard ;-)

HTML 2.0 became a Proposed Standard on 6 Nov 95 14:37:34 EST when Eric
Sink announced that RFC 1866 was available.  At that point it was
frozen.  As it had been stable for months and retrospectively describes
HTML as of August 94, it can be taken as a lowest common denominator
with some confidence.


-- 
Chris Lilley, Technical Author and JISC representative to W3C 
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Received on Monday, 15 January 1996 10:33:42 UTC