Sunava Dutta wrote:
The argument for returning null is that it makes for a cleaner API,
exceptions should only be thrown in exceptional circumstances. And
based
on available data it doesn't seem like sites currently care one way or
another, so I think we should go for the cleaner API.
What is the argument for throwing an exception?
/ Jonas
[Sunava Dutta] I can't believe you asked that question after all the
discussions that just happened on that with Ian, Zhenbin and you. With all due
respect, is this an 'engage and lock' until someone gets frustrated and quits
strategy or is there something outside of technical arguments that Mozilla is
concerned about? -:)
Not at all. I'm basing my arguments on technical merits. The argument
from microsoft seems to be "we want to throw exceptions because that is
what we are doing now and we are worried changing our implementation
will break existing websites".
However my counter argument is that other browsers have not followed
microsofts implementation in this regard and this does not seem to have
caused any interoperability issues. Therefore we should use the API that
results in the best API.
I have yet to see any counter argument from microsoft on this point
other than "we think the spec should allow both exceptions and returning
null", however this goes against the goals of the spec and so I don't
see this as an option.
I know there is a lot of miscommunication going on right now, which is
why I have been trying to describe my reasonings and the w3c process in
the past few mails.
If the two parties can't decide on an issue the best cause of action is
to summarize the technical arguments (which includes interoperability)
for all solutions and then take a decision together based on those
technical arguments.
/ Jonas
