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Microsoft finally seems to be taking advanced web standards seriously









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RE: all i want to know
By nichow on 3/17/2010 11:36:09 AM , Rating: 2
Actually it remains a draft until the working group finally agree on enough to where the release it as an official specification. I've been a member of a working group for a hardware related spec and it takes quite a bit of negotiation and NDA's to get all the members to agree. Implementation has nothing to do with the spec's draft status.

802.11n is a good example, you could buy various wireless networking gear that implement the draft of that spec for years before it was finalized.

There is some danger to implementing draft specs too soon. If those specs change significantly after implementation it will cause major problems for intranets/internet sites that code based on the draft behavior. Either thousands of sites to change or a few browser developers maintaining backwards compatibility to past behavior that is no longer in spec... Neither is a very good situation.

I'm not up to speed on the likelihood of the various draft specs changing enough to cause real problems, but it is a valid concern. The race to get 100% Acid3 results might actually end up being detrimental to the web and the ability of the spec working groups to make good changes since I'm sure they would be pressured by the various group members that have already implemented the spec according to an earlier draft.

