[css-device-adapt] Accepting semi-colons as a separator for meta-viewport

The CSS Device Adapt specification defines a parsing algorithm[1] for
the meta-element viewport content, which has been based on WebKit's
implementation that shipped with iOS4. This algorithm only accepts
commas as separators between properties.

In reality, web authors are using both commas as semi-colons. A wide
range of websites, including CNN[2], Flickr[3] and Reddit[4] depend on
this behavior, which has led at least Mozilla and Microsoft to
implement it and, in case of the latter, write about it[5].

I think the specification should adapt to reflect what authors are
doing. While it's unfortunate that the divergence between commas and
semi-colons happened, it's important for compatibility among mobile
browsers.

Thanks,
Peter

[1] http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-device-adapt/#parsing-algorithm
[2] http://m.cnn.com
[3] http://m.flickr.com
[4] http://www.reddit.com/.compact (or http://m.reddit.com/)
[5] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/iemobile/archive/2010/11/22/the-ie-mobile-viewport-on-windows-phone-7.aspx

Received on Thursday, 20 October 2011 20:29:53 UTC