RE: Tag Soup (was: FW: XHTML)

> From:	Frank Boumphrey [SMTP:bckman@ix.netcom.com]
> 
> The value of a standard is that if one writes to that standard there
> should
> be a guarentee that your work will be displayeed as intended.
> 
	I think you mean with the intended meaning.  One of the
	causes of Tag Soup, and a clear aim of the original 
	Netscape, is people wanting to control the form of what
	is displayed (e.g. one of the first things to be lost 
	between Mosaic and Netscape was the former's crude style
	sheet - I've always assumed this was to shift the balance
	away from the consumer in terms of the exact display format,
	so that authors could use it something more like a page
	description language).

	People select tags for their effect because they want to
	produce that visual effect, not because of any desire to
	show deep structure.  HTML which reflects deep structure 
	can display in radically different ways without compromising
	that structure.

	When the vestige of the deep structure origins of HTML shows
	through in differences between the major GUI browsers, the
	authors stick "best viewed with"  stickers on their work
	(quite why people would switch browsers rather than going to
	a different supplier, I have never understood).

Received on Friday, 3 December 1999 11:54:14 UTC