RE: Make Microsoft follow the spec.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-style-request@w3.org [mailto:www-style-request@w3.org]On
> Behalf Of Frank Boumphrey
> Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 9:23 AM
> To: Jeffrey Yasskin; www-style@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Make Microsoft follow the spec.
> 
> 
> As a web surfer, I'd rather use a browser that doesn't blow up when an
> > author forgets a </td> or mistypes a ':'
> 
> But as a developer I would much rather use a browser that _forces_ me
> to write good code.

Hmmm ... Interesting statement.

My $0.02 on this:

Why are you relying on your browser to force you to write good code?  IMHO,
a standard states how the code should be written to do a specific task, not
what happens if a person writes code badly.

As a developer myself, if I want to make sure I write good HTML, I use a
validator or HTML Tidy ... these are tools designed to be used to check
code.  I don't think a browser should be that tool.  It will make the
browser more bloated than it already is - and a browser isn't a debugger.  

Don't get me wrong ... following the spec for HTML, CSS, etc is very
important for browser manufacturers to do ... but a browser developer can't
be held responsible for what happens if code given to the browser is bad -
the spec doesn't say "the browser should do this if this bad code is given".

You give garbage in, you get garbage out.  

Zoltan.

Received on Wednesday, 28 February 2001 10:40:28 UTC