[whatwg] Default (informal) Style Sheet

Sun Apr 1 10:30:57 PDT 2007

On Sun, 01 Apr 2007 20:16:12 +0200, Sander Tekelenburg <st at isoc.nl> wrote:
> Who are we (as spec definers) to decide that x is the only correct  
> behaviour or presentation? And why should we want to stifle innovation  
> by requiring
> some specific presentation?

Defining default rendering for certain constructs such as that the <body>  
element has a default margin of 8px (iirc) is important for  
interoperability reasons and for new UAs trying to enter the market (saves  
them reverse engineering other UAs). A lot of web pages rely on default  
rendering of elements. For instance, that an element such as <p> has a  
default style of "display:block" as opposed to "display:none".

It is very important that UAs falling within the same conformance class  
agree on these basic principles so authoring against those UAs becomes  
more predictable and that developing a new UA doesn't involve as much  
reverse engineering as it used to.

-- 
Anne van Kesteren
<http://annevankesteren.nl/>
<http://www.opera.com/>