RE: Make Microsoft follow the spec.

Chris Wilson wrote:
>> If you think we are going to remove support of such widely-used object
model
>> from our implementation, then you are deluding yourself.

Ian Hickson wrote:
> Just as a data point for this discussion I would like to point out that in
> their last release, Netscape removed *their* widely used object model
> (namely, document.layers) and related HTML extensions (<layer> et al).

Perhaps widely used is a bit of an overstatement. I have not seen Netscape's
proprietary object model used more than a handful of times (besides code
workarounds for Netscape 4).

Netscape does not have to deal with the fact that there are thousands of
web-based applications using Microsoft's object model (document.all) that
would not work if Microsoft removed support for this object model. Millions
of Internet Explorer users would be forced to stick with an older, less
standards compliant version of Internet Explorer in order to access their
companies' data and applications. Would this be right for the Internet?

Scott E. Lee wrote:
> Revel in the power but accept none of the responsibility, is that it?
Dictate
> from on high and damn the rest of us.  I see.

It is not Microsoft's responsibility to police everyone's code. Being the
most used web browser on the planet does not entail an inherent
responsibility to ensure that developers write code compliant with W3C
recommendations.

The document.all method of accessing objects was written in good faith
before the W3C was done with their recommendation. Frankly, it would not
only be bad business sense to remove support for document.all, it would also
be just plain irresponsible. Many developers (myself included) do not wish
to rewrite thousands of documents because a long time ago document.all was
all there was and we used it to construct our sites.

The problem here does not involve Microsoft's Internet Explorer providing
greater flexibility and backwards compatibility, but with how web developers
(particularly new ones) are ignorant to the proper ways to construct a HTML
document. Chastising Microsoft for having additional object models in
parallel to the W3C's is just not a reasonable thing to do.

--
Sal Candido
salcandido@fastwebnow.com
http://www.fastwebnow.com

Received on Sunday, 4 March 2001 22:58:55 UTC