RE: Introducing NetscapeML

I don't see how Mac vs. Windows arguments relate to open standards
discussions (they are both examples of successful proprietary
platforms).  nyway, I think most people see IE2 on the Mac as vastly
superior to IE2 on Windows.  We probably have a better Mac team than
Win95 team.  If there is a lag, then in this case it was Windows lagging
Mac (plugins, anigifs, full tables, etc).  Our IE versions will continue
to leapfrog each other in very rapid releases; I actually like this pace
because we aren't falsely holding back one platform for the other.  Note
also that we do NOT have shared code between Mac and Win95 versions.  We
share design plans and reference code only.

"MS ain't no angel" I can't really argue with this, we are a
hard-driving competitive company.  I am hoping that the investments
we've made over the last year (and my own personally) are starting to
solve some of the worst of these problems.  Note, in my original post, I
said that there is nothing wrong with proprietary technology, heck, much
of what is new&cool is proprietary.  Shockwave is cool; its not open,
but it is an example of a vendor doing creative work in a new area
outside of open standards focus.

We won't try to call something an open standard which is really our own
thing.  There are single-vendor standards that are fine evolving the way
they do (Windows, MacOS, Java API).  But we won't falsely sprinkle open
dust to obscure this technology.

In cases like HTML or HTTP, where there are fully functioning
communities developing standards, we are going to respect that process
and participate the best we can.  We will not subvert the process.

Btw, can you inform me of the rendering bugs you are seeing with Mac IE,
via direct email?

-Thomas

>----------
>From: 	Walter Ian Kaye[SMTP:boo@best.com]
>Sent: 	Saturday, June 29, 1996 11:29 PM
>To: 	www-style@w3.org; html-erb@w3.org; www-html@w3.org
>Subject: 	Re: Introducing NetscapeML
>
>At 1:16p -0700 06/29/96, Thomas Reardon wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>First off, MS ain't no angel either. At least NCC releases updates to
>their
>browser SIMULTANEOUSLY on ALL supported platforms. Until MS does
>likewise, I
>really don't think any MS employee has a right to throw stones. I, for
>one, am
>sick and tired of Microsoft's "Mac lag" behind Windows releases of
>supposedly
>"core code" applications. I read that MS recently hired some
>programmers away
>from Apple -- I hope this means they are working to eliminate (note I
>say
>eliminate, not reduce) the lag. Where the hell is the MacOS beta of
>MSIE 3.0?
>Put your money where your mouth is, and eliminate the platform lag.
>Until then,
>don't throw stones.
>
>
>>It is one thing to go ahead and introduce innovation and try to get
>>concensus on the innovation, it is quite another to counter an emerging
>>standard with desperate last minute random proprietary extensions.  The
>>one mitigating factor is that these recent hacks don't come close to
>>matching the functionality already available in browsers using style
>>sheets.  Its only sad that some customers will confuse this with real
>>innovation.
>
>I won't use those new proprietary extensions. I still prefer Navigator
>3.0b4 to Explorer 2.0.1 (which has horrible rendering bugs, btw), but I
>do
>beg NCC to speed up the move toward style sheets and skip the stalling
>hacks...
>
>
>-Walter
>
>

Received on Sunday, 30 June 1996 00:56:10 UTC