On Apr 11, 12:52 am, "David E. Ross" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 4/10/2008 4:28 PM, Dave wrote [in part]: > > On Apr 10, 7:41 am, I wrote [also in part]: > >> As for CSS3, it is nowhere near ready for be treated as the equivalent > >> of a standard. > > Treating draft versions of standards, even ISO ones, as final versions > > to bring software to users faster is not a disaster because software > > is so easily upgraded. Apple' reputation for leading innovation is > > based on doing this - they even do it with hardware specifications. > > As you say, W3C Recommendations are de facto industry standards. > > Ultimately, if all major browser developers implement a draft, and > > ignore the final, the draft becomes the de facto specification. When > > Apple treats W3C drafts as finals, it invites that happening, because > > it puts pressure on other browser developers to also do so to remain > > competitive. > > If you review successive W3C specifications through their evolution to > Recommendation -- especially when a Candidate Recommendation is followed > by a new Working Draft -- you will see substantive changes. > Capabilities are added or deleted. In the case of CSS specifications, > the syntax of properties may change. This (in addition to the need for > test cases) is one reason why it takes so long for a W3C specification > to reach the status of Recommendation.
I agree. > Treating draft versions of W3C specifications as final versions to bring > software to users faster is potentially very wasteful. I agree with this general case, but with this specific case, @font- face has not departed radically from its CSS2 specification. Do you think it will? Apple has more money to waste on developing functionality that will later be discarded or modified, and seems to be taking Mozilla's place as the most innovative web browser developer because of it. But I do not think implementing @font-face now is wasteful, because I do not think the specification will change much, and I hope implementing it will help keep Mozilla competitive with Safari. > I think the > Mozilla organization might not have the resources to implement something > that then needs to be changed when the specification changes. I have the resources to have this implemented, and I expect if it is implemented early, that will help implementation of the final Recommendation significantly. > And, no, the fact that a capability was implemented by a browser developer > will > not force the W3C to stop changing a non-Recommendation specification. I agree. Thanks, Dave _______________________________________________ dev-tech-layout mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-layout
