Microsoft, XML, and the real specs

[Paul Prescod]

rev-bob at gotc.com wrote:
> 
> Excuse me - ever hear of a little project called "Mozilla"?  I mean, if you want to talk
> tech previews....

I'm not clear on what standards Mozilla "previews." It has some of its
own stuff like XUL and it has good support for existing stuff like XML
and CSS and it is moving to support some new stuff like XSL...but I
don't see it doing anything similar to what Microsoft calls a technology
preview.

Anyhow, it's irrelevant. If you are right that Mozilla has technology
previews then I am right that nobody is raising a huge fuss about it and
claiming that they are trying to take over the world.

> Since when?  I'm running IE 5.01 right now - and it still doesn't handle HTML 4 or parts
> of CSS1 properly. CSS2?  In your dreams.  Granted, it's better than the Netscape 4.7
> support - but Mozilla blows it away.  

Okay, so Microsoft's year-old browser isn't as good as Netscape's not
yet released one. Hardly a fair comparison. Rendering structured text is
hard. Verifying conformance is hard. Microsoft has, thus far, screwed it
up, as has Netscape. I see this not as evidence of a plot to take over
the world but rather as the sort of thing that happens in the Real World
with Real Programmers. As long as Microsoft keeps moving TOWARDS
standards conformance, I will keep applauding them when they do so.

> It works okay, but it's not compliant - and I'm not going to start my XML designs by
> coding in legacy hacks.  I'd much rather wait until a compliant browser hits the scene
> than rush in to support a noncompliant one just so I can say I've done it.)

That's what I encouraged you to do in my last message.

-- 
 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for himself
"Like most religious texts, the XML 1.0 spec has proven itself 
internally-inconsistent, so we're going to have to invent some kind of 
exegetical method now to show how it's really all an allegory." - Anon

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