Re: FW: IE4.0 and W3C Standards

On Tue, 4 Mar 1997, Scott Isaacs wrote:
> > An article was recently written by CRN (Computer Reseller News) that
> > incorrectly stated that Microsoft is working on a proprietary superset
> > of HTML 3.2 that will ship in Internet Explorer 4.0. This article is
> > WRONG.  Microsoft is NOT defining any new HTML or CSS features that
> > are not being discussed in coordination with the W3C. Dynamic HTML is
> > a cross-platform object model available to scripts that accurately
> > represents a HTML and CSS document according to those standards.  The
> > API used by Dynamic HTML is being reviewed and discussed within the
> > document object model working group of the W3C.  
> > 
> > All new features being introduced in Internet Explorer 4.0 are under
> > discussion with the W3C. Dynamic HTML is Microsoft's IMPLEMENTATION of
> > W3C's emerging work.  For example, Internet Explorer 4.0 will support
> > the recently released forms working draft and CSS Positioning working
> > draft. 

Ummm...While on first read this seems to say that MS is just following the
lead of the W3C, I think a closer read will reveal that this is just a
(somewhat wordy) denial of the extensions being proprietary. While it is a
good thing that MS is working for a formal public definition of these
extensions - I do not believe that this changes the public perception that
the W3C standards process is just a rubber stamp for what MS and NS plan
to do *anyway*. And for any set of extension to be viable, they would have
to be well defined anyway or no one could use them, so backwards
engineering them would be comparatively trivial whether or not MS works
with W3C to produce an 'official' standard.

-- 
Benjamin Franz
"Standards are a good thing. That's why we have so many to pick from."
                                               -- ???

Received on Wednesday, 5 March 1997 10:24:35 UTC