[whatwg] Chipset support is a good argument

[Ian Hickson]

On Mon, 6 Jul 2009, Robert O'Callahan wrote:
> 
> Specs do generate demand --- by creating author expectation that a 
> feature will be supported, by adding a well-known brand, and because 
> test suites get created which vendors then compete on.

On Mon, 6 Jul 2009, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
>
> I agree: standards generate demand. It is how h.264 hardware support 
> originated - by making it a ISO standard, the vendors knew there would 
> be sufficient market demand for it and created the chips.

I disagree with both these statements, I don't think they are in fact 
accurate. Demand can be focused around a specification if one exists, but 
a specification cannot create demand, and the lack of a specification is 
not an impediment to deployment. We have seen both facets of this 
repeatedly demonstrated through the lifetime of the Web, not least of 
which by HTML itself. Indeed, cutting features that didn't have demand 
despite being in HTML4 for a decade is one of HTML5's achievements.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
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Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'