At 03:44 PM 9/7/2005, Christian Montoya wrote:
I was actually thinking the other day, browsers should be more like
compilers... they should refuse to parse incorrect code. Then the
enforcement would be on the output end, too.
Christian,
Although I may understand where you're coming from, I need to say
that only we hyper-geeky web developers would ever wish for an
appliance that failed unless the input data were precisely
correct. Wishing for a picky, fussy browser is a sure sign that
you've gone around the bend and are already a distant blob up-river.
What most people want -- and what most of us want most of the time in
real life -- are appliances that are smart and easy-going and
flexible enough to carry on and do the job in spite of fractured or
insufficient input. We'd love to have digital clocks that didn't
reset every time the power went out, cars that could run quite
happily and cleanly on any old fuel, computers that tolerated the
latest operating system, bodies that stayed healthy in spite of all
the delicious crap we feed them.
Rather than wishing for a browser that would refuse to render invalid
markup (I believe the technical term is "break"), I believe that what
would best serve most people are browsers that are fuzzily logical
enough to render most pages, from the most pristine semantic XHTML to
the worst old-school fractured markup, as best they can.
The primary goal of browser design, after all, isn't to give web
developers a pretty reflection of our own work but instead to give
web users a useful window on the virtual world.
This is, in fact, what most browser developers attempt to provide.
Why on earth would I want to use a browser that refused to show me
pages that didn't validate? I'd be blocked from seeing 98% of what's
on the internet.
Regards,
Paul
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