RE: A query please

> From:	Daniel Acton [SMTP:dacton@itouch.co.za]
> 
> But it shouldn't be this way, and isn't this why we have such a wonderful
> body like the w3c, defining standards that manufacturers, and definitely
> coders should stick to.
> 
	[DJW:]  Two problems here:

	1) The "web" has internet origins, and there is a fundamental
	internet guideline that says:  "Be correct in what you produce;
	be tolerant in what you accept"

	2) The general public doesn't know what is correct behaviour,
	and will consider a browser that fails to behave like another
	one on invalid input to be broken, that results in:

	 - costs asssociated with support calls;

	 - consumers switching to the more tolerant browser.

	The consequence is a war to be more tolerant than the 
	competition.  (Note that Netscape 4 is very tolerant of
	some errors.)

	The first principle would apply to authoring tools, but providing
	the big 2 work (or just your own product) there is no pressure to
	use coders who understand HTML; authors who understand HTML tend
	to hand code, anyway.

> "standard-conforming" interpreters, thus producing the _same_ output from
> one piece of code.
>  
	[DJW:]  Standards conforming browsers are most definitely not
	required to produce the same output from the same HTML.  With
	a fully specified style sheet, they may be expected to produce
	quite similar output, but, for example, a Unix product will produce
	completely different looking list boxes from a Windows one 
	(this happens within the Netscape family).

	There is commercial pressure for this, but the real 
	solution is an authoring language designed for the wants of
	commercial authors. 

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Received on Monday, 23 October 2000 06:56:04 UTC