Netscape Basher wrote:
> Jonas J�rgensen typed:
>
>> blackbox wrote:
>>
>>> �What make them qualify to be categorized and be named 'standards'?
>>
>>
>>
>> If they are accepted by a recognized, trustworthy, independent,
>> standard-defining organization. For instance:
>>
>> Internet Engineering Task Force Request For Comments:
>> http://www.ietf.org/rfc
>>
>> World Wide Webconsortium Recommendations:
>> http://www.w3.org/TR/#Recommendations
>>
>> /Jonas
>>
>
> Which Netscape only started to care about when they became the minority
> in the browser market, then they started to cry foul.
>
> It is MS Explorer that defines the standards used, not the w3c.
> The w3c means nothing.
>
Kyle, Kyle, Kyle . . . : You /know/ that argument is hog-wash, 'cos the
only way in which you can legitmate it is by reference to market share,
which results in the tautology: IE is standard because it has the
biggest market share; therefore, because it has the largest market
share, it is the standard.
'Standard' in this case stands apart from any consideration of market
share. Standards (in this case, largely defined by the W3C) are
something browsers (IE, NS, Moz, Opera, whatever) are supposed to
implement in a consistent manner so that /mark-up/ will be displayed
consistently; hence, the issue isn't 'standard' /per se/ but rather
/compliance/ with those standards. Not to have standards -- let alone a
consistent implementation of those standards -- will not only result in
chaos.
I, for one, don't want to go back to the days of proprietary tags and
extensions. Further, the problem in allowing IE to 'be' or 'define' the
'standard' is that you end up marking up around the quirks of the
browser (that is, the lapses with its standards compliance), and the
moment a newer version of IE, say, implements standards better, or a
more standards-compliant browser becomes the dominant browser, those
IE-defined standards will come back to bite you.
Here endeth the lecture.
Brian
--
We sail tonight for Singapore | We're all as mad as hatters here
I've fallen for a tawny moor | Took off to the land of Nod
Drank with all the Chinamen | Walked the sewers of Paris
I danced along a colored wind | Dangled from a rope of sand
You must say goodbye to me
-- Tom Waits, 'Singapore'
