Re: CSS in Netscape

Paul and others --

Don't mean to pick on Paul, he is only saying what others have
said and I am only questioning the practicality, not the
desirability.

>If the W3 is so far behind, why can't the latest browsers comply
to these
>standards?

Think of HTML as a model airplane. The old accepted "standard" is
to cut the wing ribs for a 72 inch wingspan model from 3/32 inch
thick balsa stock. It's all very well and good and a nice
standard and accepted throughout the modeling world, (well--more
or less).

Now think of an innovative model airplane kit manufacture that
provides his customers with the latest technology in aeronautics
by including a wing made by cutting the wing from foam and
covering it with Kevlar and epoxyglass.

Then some modeler wails, "Why can't they stick to the standards?"
Well -- It's pretty hard to use 3/32 balsa if there "ain't" any
ribs.

To a very real degree, we have the same thing going on all the
time in the whole computer world, not just HTML. Many so called
"standards" are obsolete even before they are "adopted". The
competition in the Free Enterprise world is simply too fast paced
and unrelenting to insure that every--even most--so called
standards all get picked up and included in every application
that gets produced.

Do I think this is right or good?? -- Not really but it is a fact
of life and somewhere along the line we have to quit worrying
about "paper" standards and look at the real world in a PRACTICAL
way.

And that way is there for all to see ..

Which browser supports what. It does not matter a whit who thinks
who, did right or wrong or whether We Willie Gates had a darn
thing to do with it. It is the world we HAVE to live with, like
it or not. And for that matter--Are there any among us that
actually, really, thinks that if it ever came to a war between
Netscape, W-3 or Microsoft -- well -- is there any doubt who
would win??

The bottom line--AT THIS TIME--is that the current state of the
browser art lies with Internet Explorer. "No brag--just fact", as
a TV actor used to say.

>I would like suggest we, as a group, start "hammering" the
browser
>developers with e-mail stressing our dissatisfaction in
rendering our work
>when created (or coded) to the W3 specifications.

Good luck. But in the meantime those of us trying to make things
work MUST live in that real world THAT EXISTS right now.
Therefore, as I have said in the past, the only PRACTICAL
validation is what actually works in the 4x browsers with some
web authors still forced to be sure their work will degrade at
least to an acceptable degree in 3x browsers. (Depending on their
client base.)

When someone on this list asks a question, filling them with make
believe "standards" that may NEVER come to pass doesn't really
help them all that much. When they are up to their a - - in
alligators, it does little good to mention the "standards" say
the swamp is supposed to be drained.

Don't get me wrong. I wish I did have the time to "hammer" on
Browser developers and take lance to an occasional windmill. It
might be kind of fun.

In the meantime, best wishes
Ted Temer
Temercraft Designs Redding, CA
temer(at)c-zone.net
http://www.temercraft.com
http://www.newsredding.com/

HTML: hwg-basics mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA