WWW: Beyond the Basics

Chapter 13 - HTML

13.4.2 Who is hurt by non-standard HTML?

"Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network."
[Tim Berners-Lee in Technology Review, July 1996]


Use of proprietary HTML coding that is hardware or software specific can deprive seekers of information. The ultimate test of who might be hurt is to determine who the audience is. If the documents under consideration are personal vanity pages, it might be appropriate to use non-standard HTML. If the documents are intended for an Intranet in which the software and hardware can be dictated and supplied, then anything goes. If the information is critical to the world it would be best to use the simplest, most widely supported HTML.

Who is being left out?

Relying heavily on graphics and non-standard markup, and not providing text/plain HTML alternatives leaves out many users.

Abigail's WWW dream is a powerful story that illustrates the power of the Web as a resource that must be accessible to everyone.

Daniel W. Connolly, editor of HTML 2.0, has this to say about non- standard markup, and the role of the W3C: (Connolly, Problems with IDML)

"But disregarding the specs -- and this is assuming you would disregard the specs, rather than negotiating in the appropriate forums to get them changed. I know _you_ wouldn't do that :-), but for all the folks out there considering it: it is destructive to the fabric of the Web and the net in the following way:

"It breaks down trust. It breaks down that notion that the net and the Web are built on public specs -- that it's a level playing field out there, cuz anybody can go and read the specs and implement them.

"If the documents out there don't conform to the spec, then folks can no longer just code to the specs and expect it to work. They have to reverse engineer the behavior of the market leader(s) de-jour.

"So please, everybody, stop asking "what would it break?" and start asking "what is the design rationale behind the current spec, and is there new evidence that suggests the spec should be changed?"

"Once you've got an argument that the spec should change, then we'll all start to look real hard at compatibility and deployment issues."

"Some might say that this battle has already been lost -- that coding to the specs is a losing proposition anyway. I maintain that it is cost-effective in the long run, and I will continue to choose to see the world that way for as long as I live, or until I become a cynic like everybody else :-{"

Dan


In the next section, we will take a look at exactly what HTML tags are "safe," that is, understandable by any browser that visits.


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Copyright © 1996 Pris Sears, All Rights Reserved

Pris Sears <sears@vt.edu>