[whatwg] Questions: IE 6 Compatibility, HTML 5, Spec Timeframe, and Implementation Timeframe

[Brad Neuberg]

My focus is actually mostly on Web Applications 1.0 rather than Web Forms 
2.0.  Responses inline.



>I'm not sure about WA1 as I haven't thought about it so much from an
>implementer's point of view. What bits of it do you think are difficult
>to implement? It seems to me that some of it does not need to be
>implemented at all.

I'll need to think about that.  I'll have to read through the spec and 
think about what might be difficult or slow to emulate on IE.  As a start 
some of the email list discussion on changing the semantics and parsing of 
basic HTML elements and re-interpreting what they mean concerned me in 
terms of IE, since doing this might be difficult especially since you can't 
modify the prototype objects of the DOM in IE.


>>Whats the exact relationship between these specs and IE 6?  Will
>>there be a baseline of support in IE 6, a low water mark?
>
>I don't think we've set a water mark but it has always been the
>intention to produce a WF2 spec capable of being supported on IE6.

How about for Web Applications 1.0?  If there are SHOULD and MAY portions 
of the spec, would all SHOULD elements be supported in IE while all MAY 
elements would not?


>>Second, what is the relationship of HTML 5 to these two specs? Who is
>>  developing this standard?  At first glance it seems like a large 
>> dependency.
>
>WF2 and WA1 are components of HTML5:
>
>http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2005-April/003746.html
>
>>Third, is there a timeframe for completing these two specs and for 
>>getting actual implementations out the door?
>
>>one of the things that attracted me to the WHAT-WG was its focus on
>>being real-world and pragmatic, getting it out the door rather than
>>getting it perfect, co-opting and using existing de-facto standards
>
>This is pretty much the reason I got involved too. :-)
>
>>Would hard deadlines on both specs, including deadlines for
>>implementations, help this?
>
>As a programmer I always hated hard deadlines.

Me too, but they help, especially when you get to define them yourself. 
;)  I think it's good to a certain degree cuse its easy to get 
perfectionistic about this stuff, and a hard deadline can force you to 
accept that something won't be perfect and ship it out the door.


>>We need this stuff yesterday; it's just too important. ;)
>
>I agree. ;-)
>
>Some of the developers on this list are collaborating on a WF2
>implementation for IE5/6. It won't be ready yesterday but it will be
>built. We'll announce more about this development when there is
>something concrete to demonstrate.
>
>Does that satisfy your concerns?

A bit; I know that you also share an interest in real world specs that are 
"good enough", but does the group and the spec writers?  Also, I'm mostly 
interested in Web Apps 1.0 so there are alot of questions still there.

Best,
   Brad


>-dean
>

Brad Neuberg, bkn3 at columbia.edu
Senior Software Engineer, Rojo Networks
Weblog: http://www.codinginparadise.org

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