July 6, 2004 03:30 | WebTech

1996 all over again...

I was thinking about writing about this but Tim Bray brought it up (and is in a better position to do so...)

ongoing · Party Like It's 1996!

I'm a major admirer of Safari and of its primary author Dave Hyatt. But a couple of Dave's recent notes have caused me serious discomfort. Here he notes that Safari will support a new search= attribute on the input element, and here he discusses a new canvas element. Even more troubling is the opening phrase: Another extension we made to HTML is... I'd be really happy if someone explained to me how this is different from what Netscape and Microsoft did to each other so irritatingly back in 1996 (<MARQUEE> anyone?). What the W3C and Web Standards Project were created to stop? [By the way, there are namespaces, there are class= attributes, there are legitimate ways to extend HTML.] Someone please explain to me why I'm wrong, because I really hope this isn't what it looks like.

My thoughts and concerns exactly...

Comments
Tue, Jul 6, 2004, @ 5:00
1- diskgrinder

My understanding is that these extensions are primarily intended for Dashboard - Webcore has extended HTML to allow wid/gadget authors to have greater control over the way widgets display and work.

It is not clear that these extensions are intended to extend Safari's capabilities in a proprietary manner, or confer a competitive advantage to Safari.


Tue, Jul 6, 2004, @ 23:29
2- Karl

If it's implemented, it will be used.
If it's used, it will damage interoperability.
The standardization has a cost: slow, painful, consensus.
The benefits of standardization: Social freedom. You can use the tools without to worry of what you have to use, the cost of it, etc, you give the freedom of choice to the user.

Tim Bray is right. What's happening is dangerous.


Tue, Jul 6, 2004, @ 23:52
3- Boris Anthony

Thanks Karl. Exactly.

"It is not clear that these extensions are intended to extend Safari's capabilities in a proprietary manner, or confer a competitive advantage to Safari."

It's irrelevant what the intent is. It contravenes standards, standards that were VERY long in finally being recognized and respected.

That said, this is built into Apple's WebCore. Let's hope it is disabled in Safari, at least.


Wed, Jul 7, 2004, @ 3:55
4- Ross Olson

Look at it this way: There are a few real-time compositing graphic languages: DisplayPostscript/Quartz, QuickDraw, OpenGL. Apple is adding a new one: HTML/CSS/JS. This isn't about extensions for the web, it's about giving Mac developers the ability to composite on screen in a highly accessible language.

This is for the Mac Platform, not the Web Platform.

See more on this at my Journal: http://www.bad-seed.org/dwelling/