[whatwg] Removing versioning from HTML

[Peter Kasting]

On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 12:35 PM, João Eiras <joaoe at opera.com> wrote:

> From an implementor's point of view it is much harder to implement and keep
> up with a mutating specification. During implementation a stable spec is
> preferred.
>

As a browser implementer, I have certainly not found the dynamic nature of
the spec to be a problem.  In fact the opposite is true: problems in the
spec can be fixed quickly when they're raised.


> Currently, because specs are being edited and might take a while to get to
> CR, we have different implementors implement different parts of the
> specifications, and then meanwhile the specification mutates and
> implementors have to waste time updating their implementation which could
> have been right from the start. I understand that implementation feedback is
> necessary, but this is not very optimal.


As opposed to if we froze versions, which would mean implementers would
implement part of the old specification, and meanwhile the new spec has
changed it.

In other words, I don't see how versioning reduces this problem at all in
practice.

Furthermore, you seem to be proposing versioning well in advance of CR
status, since you say it will take time to reach CR.  What is the metric by
which we'd decide to "freeze" a spec, then?

PK
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