Re: HTML tag addition suggestion, to "solve" future browser display problems

On Sun, 3 Jan 1999, Brian Schweitzer wrote:

> I'm not sure if this is the correct place to email this, so please
> correct me if I've somehow chosen the wrong address.
> 
> As I see it, one of the biggest problems HTML is facing (if not
> the biggest) is the lack of a guarantee that the document will be
> seen as it was intended to be seen.  I may design a document to
> look best in 800x1024 resolution, when viewed with Netscape's
> latest non-beta release.  Ok, so it will look fine under the exact
> same situation, and depending upon what I used in the document, it
> may always look right. But what if I used the most up to date
> tags, and am then viewing it in IE5b2 at 600x800?  It looked fine
> before, but now it may be a complete mess. 

The way we are trying to tackle this is by developing standard
ways to describe client capabilities using RDF, and similarly
defining "document profiles" offering interoperability guarantees
provided the author sticks to the constraints defined by the
document profile, e.g. a precise subset of HTML, style sheet
or scripting language. The profile can also contain constraints
on image formats and other linked data (e.g. the use of plugins).

Regards,

-- Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett
tel/fax: +44 122 578 2984 (or 2521) +44 385 320 444 (gsm mobile)
World Wide Web Consortium (on assignment from HP Labs)

Received on Monday, 4 January 1999 10:37:59 UTC