On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 2:15 PM, Robert Kaiser <ka...@kairo.at> wrote: > Jonathan Kew schrieb: >> >> But the model for webfonts is explicitly *not* to have a single URL that >> may be delivered in any of several formats, but rather to offer several >> distinct resources with different URLs, and let the browser decide which >> of them to request. >> >> So the "negotiation" is handled within the browser > > > Right. And if I remember correctly, we also just invented the <picture> > element for HTML5 to do the same for images as it's actually *better* in > many regards to the dilemma we have with all the Accept: negotiation. Or am > I wrong there?
Sometimes client side negotiation is the better solution, sometimes server side is. It can be a pain in the ass to try to get your hosting provider to install modules that handles content negotiation based on accept. Or to switch service provider to one that lets you run server side script. Or learn your server infrastructure to figure out how to add negotiation. In those cases it's great that developers can handle it on the client. But there are also cases when it's a pain to figure out the client side code to modify it to pass through the right parameters to do negotiation on the client. Or to ask all your customers to rewrite their apps to handle content negotiation. Or find all the places where your referring to a given resource and replace it with logic to do client side negotiation. In those cases it's good if the server has access to all the information needed to serve the most appropriate resource. When we design the platform such that we require people to use a particular solution we better be really sure that that solution will work in all the (common) situations that people need the problem solved. When we get it wrong, which so far happens a lot, people end up with horrible workarounds, buggy apps, slower productivity and more resource usage. In short, with a worse user experience. We far too often close our eyes to the realities of web development in an effort to keep the platform simple. However simple doesn't always mean fewer features. When developers have to work around the lack of features that doesn't make their jobs simpler. That said, adding all the features isn't always the answer either of course. / Jonas _______________________________________________ dev-platform mailing list dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform
