Web standards- tell Netscape what you think.

Hi all-

I've posted on and off about things like Web Accessibility and Web
standards. Now, Web developers and users have a chance to tell Netscape
what they really think should be include in version 5.0 of the browser. 

The Web Standards Project, an international coalition of leading Web
developers and Web experts, today launched a public campaign to encourage
Netscape to make sure its next version of Navigator includes software that
would reportedly make the browser 100 percent compliant with two major Web
standards.

WSP is gathering signatures from Web developers and the Web-using public,
via its site <http://www.webstandards.org>, urging Netscape to include its
NGLayout engine, which is currently under development, in Navigator 5.0.
The layout engine takes HTML and other code describing a Web page's
appearance and converts it into what the user actually sees. 

Currently, layout engines in both Navigator and Microsoft's Internet
Explorer fail to fully support standards created by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) and other standards bodies. The resulting
incompatibilities among various browsers add at least 25 percent to the
cost of building sites and threaten to fragment the Web.

Netscape officials have pledged NGLayout will fully support the standards
for Document Object Model (DOM) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) level 1
and also support features of the CSS level 2 standard. WSP has been urging
browser makers to fully support these core standards - as well as others,
such as XML - developed by the W3C and other standards bodies.

CSS gives control over the appearance of many pages at once, from the
typography to the behavior of links, as well as precise control over page
layout. DOM lets developers use scripting languages, such as ECMAScript
(née JavaScript), to manipulate text, images and other parts of Web pages;
for instance, dynamically changing their appearance over time, or moving
them around inside the browser window.

However, Netscape officials have said that current plans won't include
NGLayout in Navigator 5.0, scheduled for release later this year.  The "I
Want My NGLayout!" campaign is intended to let Netscape know that Web
developers and the Web-using public believe full support for these
standards by browsers is crucial for the evolution of the Web. 

If you're interested as a Web developer, please check out the WSP Web site
and fill out the form letting Netscape know. Feel free to e-mail me with
any questions.
--
B.K. DeLong                  360 Huntington Ave.
Director                         Suite 140SC-305
New England Chapter     Boston, MA 02115
World Organization        (617) 247-3753
of Webmasters
 

http://www.world-webmasters.org
bkdelong@naw.org

Received on Tuesday, 22 September 1998 17:25:04 UTC