Brian Heinrich typed: > 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 >
Brian, the days of proprietary tags are still here. And if Netscape were still the market leader, they would still be pushing their own propprietary tags. If Netscape becomes the leader again, which it won't, they would once again, push proprietary tags. Explorer defines what is done because they are the majority. For a webmaster to make a page that looks like garbage on IE is suicide. The good thing about Explorer is that it does a great job in displaying pages that are w3c compliant. -- Kyle "It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated" - Alec Bourne
