Re: CSS implementation status reports (and a first one from Mozilla)

On Monday 2009-03-23 20:10 +0100, Bert Bos wrote:
> On Thursday 19 March 2009, L. David Baron wrote:
> > I think it is good for the progress of the Web if browsers implement
> > the same standards, since standards only become useful to Web
> > authors once either (a) a significant portion of their users use
> > browsers implementing the standard, or (b) nearly all of their users
> > do.  (Which of (a) or (b) depends on whether the use of the standard
> > is essential to viewing the Web page or an optional enhancement.)
> >
> > Therefore, I'm going to suggest that browser implementors start
> > sharing regularly lists of what parts of CSS they believe they
> > implement and what parts they are likely to work on in the near
> > future, so that other browser makers can adjust their plans
> > accordingly in order to advance the progress of the Web.
> 
> Browsers and many other CSS implementations have been publishing lists 
> of what they implement since many years. E.g.:

I think many of these examples aren't quite what I want since they
don't all include the cutting-edge specs that are implemented, or
the specs that are currently implemented in betas or nightly builds.
They're also not written with an intended audience of other
implementors nor sent to a forum likely to reach other implementors.

That said, the existence of these materials can make it much easier
to write the type of report I was proposing.

> Agreeing on what to implement in the *next* software versions would 
> certainly be useful, but so far, whenever I asked implementers, they 
> said they weren't at liberty to discuss that.
> 
> Is Mozilla maybe trying to provoke its competitors a bit? :-)

I'm not trying to provoke, nor do I expect us to all agree on what
to implement.  I think different implementations experimenting with
different parts of the specs that they think are important is useful
because having implementations allows better assessment of both the
costs and benefits of implementing them.

However, these experiments are only useful if they actually lead to
the useful bits being implemented across browsers.  Giving everybody
more information about what is implemented and being implemented in
different browsers provides information that is useful in reaching
that desired end state (and reaching it sooner).

-David

-- 
L. David Baron                                 http://dbaron.org/
Mozilla Corporation                       http://www.mozilla.com/

Received on Wednesday, 25 March 2009 00:31:56 UTC