On 19 Nov 2002 at 16:37, Fringe Ryder wrote:

> At 11:54 PM 11/19/2002  +0000, Robert O'Connor wrote:
> >On 19 Nov 2002 at 15:22, Fringe Ryder wrote:
> >
> > > At 10:53 PM 11/19/2002  +0000, Robert O'Connor wrote:
> > > >On 18 Nov 2002 at 21:43, Laurens M. Fridael wrote:
> > > > > complying with W3C standards is hardly a priority or
> > > > > even a consideration.

> > > >I would tend to differ on that point.

> >*I* am not going to:
> >(a) work on crap non-standard proprietary non-HTML.
> >(b) offer support on mailing lists on how to use crap non-standard 
> >proprietary
> >non-HTML.
> >(c) maintain the extra work to maintain compatibility of crap non-standard
> >proprietary non-HTML, as they change underfoot since they aren't standard.
> >(d) document them all and how to make them work.
> >(e) maintain the docs.
> 
> Robert, I'm not clear that you've done any parser work anyhow; I don't 
> expect you to work on it.  

Perhaps in reading through the archives, you missed:
- The coloured element support (colored text, tables, hr, etc), according to W3C specs.
- <hr> tag up to a pretty much complete HTML 3.2 spec.
- Various other smaller cleanups of things to keep them running properly in a standard 
way.

>  But do you notice any 
> prejudicial tone in your message?
>          "crap non-standard proprietary non-HTML"

That is my opinion, and each component is the chosen word to what I feel is the best 
possible 
description. As a near to completely trained medical doctor, one of the top priorities 
is a 
complete description. The proposed non-HTML, in my opinion, are:
-crap
-non-standard
-proprietary
-non-HTML

> Nobody asked for support of that specifically.  

In the archives, buglist (and in personal emails also) there is now requests for the 
top 3 that 
I mentioned:
-The mix of non-standard HTML colors.
-Office <![garbage]>
-pods://

> Sure, some "non-standard" 
> HTML, depending on whose standard (W3 or the real world/market.)  

W3C is documented, provides a testable implementation and provides compatibility of 
Plucker 
with other tools. Proprietary fly-by-night stuff do not.

> Sure, 
> some crappy HTML that would have been standard if not for the fact that a 
> color (to use your example) wound up not in the standard or a tag got 
> misused in a common fashion.  Certainly not any "non-HTML", unless you 
> define "non-HTML" the way David does, as disqualifying a document that has 
> a single malformed comment tag, for example.

The ideas that are good get into W3C after a few years. There was, is, nor will be 
plans for 
pods://back as there is already an equivalent elsewhere that behaves in a documented, 
more 
extensible way. The eclectic extended named colors have #RGB equivalents and save 
extra dead 
weight from a renderer's code. With regards to <![garbage]>, there is a proper way to 
demarcate 
comments, in a way that is forward compatible with XML et al. 

> I have made several parser changes recently, and would consider doing some 
> to expand Plucker's usefulness should a common not-quite-standard usage be 
> interfering broadly with usage.  Things that are perhaps supported by all 
> four major browsers we might want to consider. 

The initial writing is trivial in the timeframe of a project--it is the long term 
maintainence 
that is the killer. This is in addition to the hit in parser speed and the increased 
amount of 
time required to maintain function with non-documented items, and also to then 
maintain 
backward compatibility with these things as they fade away at the expense of their 
standard 
equivalents.

> On the bright side, right now it's both a tribute to a standards body AND 
> useful, at least to me.  

There has been a high degree of success to date, of people leaving the other 
proprietary 
solutions in favour of the Free, standards-based, documented Plucker project. It is 
useful to 
me also.

Best wishes,
Robert
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