Policy for one vendor using the vendor-prefix from another vendor?

We've noticed that IE Mobile for Windows has implemented support for property with a -webkit-prefix:
<http://blogs.msdn.com/iemobile/archive/2010/05/10/javascript-and-css-changes-in-ie-mobile-for-windows-phone-7.aspx>

We believe that by convention, vendor prefixes are owned by the relevant vendor, and that vendors supporting each others prefixes undermines the vendor prefix system. A vendor should be able to change the behavior of a vendor-prefixed property at any time, without having to worry about another vendor who is squatting on the same prefix.

You may argue that if a vendor implements the prefix from another vendor, they do so entirely at their own risk. However, there's always a risk that such a cross-vendor prefix usage becomes widely enough deployed that a change in behavior by the original vendor would have too significant consequences, leading to unwanted lock-in. This we would like to avoid.

I propose that the section on vendor prefixes here
<http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-syntax/#vendor-specific>
should strongly discourage cross-vendor prefix usage.

Simon

Received on Tuesday, 11 May 2010 19:04:06 UTC