Re: Which browsers support W3C standards?

[John Dowdell]

Neither of the major browser brands is strict-to-spec.


HTML 4.0 was finalized after IE4 shipped, and long after NS4 shipped.


The IE4 browser arrived later and so is closer to what HTML 4 turned out to

be. The Netscape 5 browser will (I imagine) be closer yet, because it is

arriving after the spec is finished.


I don't know whether either of the 5.0 browsers will arrive after the

Document Object Model specification is ratified, nor the XML-stylesheets or

XML-linking specs. As usual, with new features we'll likely see a bit of

divergence, while older features slowly converge.


The Microsoft/Win32 browser will have a particular problem in becoming

compliant with HTML 4.0 because of its current not-to-spec use of the

OBJECT tag. This renders one of the most useful features of HTML 4.0

unusable, unless you sniff to weed out browsers which use the current

OBJECT implementation.



The CSS-2 proposal is currently in a "working draft" stage. Netscape will

again be shooting at a moving target. Depending on its development cycle

for IE5, Microsoft may or may not have a clearer view of what the final

CSS-2 spec may become.



If you're looking for a to-the-spec browser, take a look at Opera. It's

fun. It uses the HTML 3.2 spec pretty faithfully, and it can run most Flash

pages, too. *Very* useful as a reality-check on your pages.

http://www.operasoftware.com/



Bottom line: As a designer of web experiences you do not have the luxury of

choosing what viewers your audience will use. You can use whatever you want

for your own viewing, but the audience makes their own choices. The goal is

to give them as rich and compelling an experience as possible, no matter

what their current viewing choices are. Tricky, but satisfying.



j "imho" d





At 11:48 AM 3/5/98, Bryan Wilhite wrote:

>Which browsers support or intend to support W3C standards (esp. CSS 2.0)?

>I can only think of that "dreaded" Microsoft product that New Media

>Magazine hyper-awarded. Surely there is a browser out there that is

>deliberately designed to meet all W3C specs. Netscape was cool back in

>the day but now that I'm thinking on a larger scale when it comes to

>building WWW sites I don't have time to play with special tags from ANY

>browser.

>

>I want to stay focussed on standard HTML 3.2 (and 4.0) and devote all of

>the customization and spontaneous creativity to Macromedia Flash.




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