Alternatives to the W3C (was Re: Alternatives to the W3C)

[rev-bob at gotc.com]

> >If we say that the margin of error of this sample is 10% , it means that at
> >least 31% of the browsers in the population sampled has an XML browser, not
> >bad. So, if we make the right inferences:
> 
> That's only if you think that IE5 counts as an XML browser, realistically.
> I don't. -Tim

I've had to give this matter a lot of thought lately - ever since I started spawning an 
XHTML sibling site for my content - and I ultimately decided *not* to treat IE5 as 
XML-compliant.  Here's why.

First of all, one of my main objectives in the XHTML site is to rid myself of a lot of 
legacy code.  Any browser ever made has been able to handle HTML, so the HTML 
side of the site needs to support that as far as possible - or at least as far as reasonable.  
On the other hand, XML support is kind of scarce in that context, which means that I 
can remove a lot of legacy support from the XHTML code.  For instance, I can take 
out that one hack that dodges around the NN2 NOSCRIPT bug, and I can assume 
CSS1 as a viable alternative to finally do away with FONT and some other stuff.

With that in mind, it becomes clear that I have two ways to handle a visitor - route 'em 
to HTML, or send 'em to XHTML.  Since the HTML is designed to be legacy-friendly, 
I can send anyone there with confidence that they can see the content.  It makes for an 
excellent fallback system, and allows me to be a bit more draconian in my selection of 
XHTML browsers than I might be if XHTML was the only markup language around.  
The question, therefore, is not "how do I make my XHTML work on this browser" but 
rather "will this browser handle my XHTML" - the first assumes a site with one version; 
the second allows for HTML-targeted redirection.

Since IE5 does not adhere to certain parts of the XML/XHTML specs, I feel the best 
way to handle IE5 users is to send 'em to HTML by default.  Perhaps Mozilla will do 
better when finally released....



 Rev. Robert L. Hood  | http://rev-bob.gotc.com/
  Get Off The Cross!  | http://www.gotc.com/


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