RE: Introducing NetscapeML

>Matthew James Marnell <marnellm@portia.portia.com> wrote:
>>Perhaps you're right, he does seem to be among the minority in the
>>Redmond Empire that actually cares about standards, as are the other
>>fine representatives of MS in these forums.

Actually, I believe the minority here at Microsoft today are those who
DON'T care about standards - Microsoft did a quick 90-degree turn in
more ways than one with respect to the Internet.  If I hadn't seen that
start to happen, I wouldn't have come here.
>
>>:>And I'm pleasantly surprised to see Microsoft setting an
>>:>example - they too started off down the path of 'HTML extensions',
>>:>but now seem to be fully supporting the standards process.
>>
>>Yes, somewhat refreshing and scary.  While we know that the fine
>>people that participate here on these lists are with the standards
>>track, I can't help but wonder if the upper management in Redmond
>>might not tell the developers to "out-Netscape" Netscape.  I feel
>>that that would hurt the whole process.

I don't believe that will happen.  There are a number of people here
(Thomas is one, myself another) who believe that there is much benefit
and little loss in utilizing standards.  That isn't to say that we won't
be involved in driving standards, of course - that's why you see, as
someone put it, "Microsoft people in the front row at IETF meetings."
>
>>:>   Maybe Microsoft see what Netscape don't - if you make use of
>>:>the standards process, you'll get things right, and not have to
>>:>fix them later.

Absolutely.  I've always believed this.
>
>>Maybe MS has been burned by bad press over their previous
>>heavyhandedness toward standards.

I'm sure that could be one level of motivation also.  I personally tend
to believe that standards promote interoperability between VENDORS as
well as platforms, and the Web was a critical step toward that end.  In
addition, I agree with the statement above too; making use of the
standards process means making use of people who have experiences that I
don't, and that is very valuable.

>>Don't forget that MS is
>>pushing FrontPage, which goes a long way toward breaking
>>many things, in their fervor to compete with things like
>>OpenDoc, etc.

Hmm... I'm not sure what things FrontPage breaks, and I'm missing your
comparison of FrontPage to OpenDoc.  At any rate, FrontPage is, for us,
a relatively new product.

>>Don't forget that web-browsers and HTML are
>>a very small part of MS's overall software development.

Well, if you compare the size of the Internet Explorer team(s) to the
size of Microsoft overall, yes that's true.  However, Internet- and
Web-related development is rampant here.  My biggest problem is not
allowing myself to get too randomized working with other teams within
Microsoft on Internet-enabling their applications.

>>While I admire the efforts of the few here, I continue
>>to abhor the overall structure.

Well, the few evangelize to the many, and Microsoft has definitely been
changing its tune, to my ears anyway.
>
	-Chris
Chris Wilson
cwilso@microsoft.com

Received on Monday, 1 July 1996 14:05:56 UTC