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

> Separate test suites that are each simpler to write than the previous
> ones. N-tier has been very popular because it abstracts each layer
> allowing each layer to match the mental models of the people using it.

Whilst layering has long been a holy grail, it doesn't work in practice
for a number of reasons:

- especially with a mass market technology, like the web, people want
  a one technology solution - this is partly why www.html used to
  get so many javascript or even Flash questions, as people didn't 
  want to separate the concepts.  Layering is only nice if people
  actually think in layers, but thinking in layers is quite an
  abstract concept.

- implementors often cut corners and don't layer the implementation,
  because the result is faster and more flexible.

- even people who understand layering can only track a small number of
  layers.  The result is often that lower layers get pushed out of
  the mass consciousness and people re-implement the functions that
  they perform in new higher layers.

> It locks you into a bad design years after you learn it was a bad
> design. Developers have the pleasure of implementing code to cover the
> use of that bad design for the lifetime of the language. Rather than

What you are demonstrating here is the lifecycle of all standards. 
They start clean and focussed, then people try and make them do 
everything (I think SVG and CSS3 are going that way) and eventually,
new standards come along which are focussed, but soon the demand
arises to make them do everything......

Received on Thursday, 30 June 2005 21:22:51 UTC