Re: CSS is doomed (10 years per version ?!?)

> for CSS 1.0 renderers? No. Once you finish getting it done, you
> package up the renderer as a plugin and ship it with your product so
> that when a resource specifies 1.0, it uses the 1.0 renderer. If it

That means that content will die when the platforms on which the
plug-in run dies.  W3C is trying to take a socially responsible
position, not just a purely commercial one.  One of the problems
we have now with technology is that there are a lot of machine
readable resources that are no longer machine readable because
the hardware and/or software to read them no longer exists.

Such decay of the historical record doesn't bother computer and
software vendors because buyers don't think in those terms.  Many
may not even think clearly about statute of limitation terms of around
six or sever years (UK tax records).  One has to assume that commercial
products can disappear very quickly (product is no longer profitable,
company goes out of business, company gets taken over), so any
closed source plugin can start to become unusable at very short
notice.

Open source is better, because its existence isn't at the mercy of
commercial factors, but open source can still depend on proprietory
platforms.

(Related to this was the EOLAS patent issue.  The big concern for W3C
was that many historic web pages might become inaccessible because
browsers withdrew support for features rather than pay royalties.)

Received on Sunday, 3 July 2005 08:23:09 UTC