Re: Selector for parent/predecessor?

Alastair,

> Put yourself in the authors position, and imagine you are using a fairly
> complex layout. You've then used a valid (straight from the spec)
> selector, and suddenly your pages take longer to render. Why would a
> browser maker implement that? It just doesn't seem right...

Maybe they should improve the code, then.

I don't understand why browser implementers are suddenly given such
special status. I don't see the same moaning going on in other areas
of software. People write high-speed 3D graphics games, produce films,
devise speech and mapping software, get satellites and ships into
space and back...and whilst all of this innovation is going on in
other areas, browsers basically haven't changed in years. And worse,
without exception, their producers spend most of their time trying to
explain why they *don't* have security features, or tabbed browsing,
or proper XHTML support, or decent CSS selectors...the list goes on.

Imagine if the same thing happened in the world of life-support
machines or car manufacture, with vendors claiming that performance
wouldn't have been that great if they had coped with very high-speed
heartbeats or breaking on bends in the road. 'You really must see it
from our point of view', they might say...we can't be spending all of
our time writing efficient code.

The reality, which people can choose to ignore if they like, is that
all of the innovation is taking place amongst programmers who are
working around the limitations of browsers! Look at Dojo...look at
script.aculo.us...YUI...Google's Java to Ajax mapping...all of these
innovations are coming about because browsers are years out of date,
and don't provide the features that authors need.

Regards,

Mark

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Mark Birbeck
CEO
x-port.net Ltd.

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Received on Tuesday, 22 August 2006 08:41:01 UTC