[whatwg] Implementation complexity with elements vs an attribute (responsive images)

[Kornel Lesiński]

On Sun, 13 May 2012 20:20:54 +0100, Mathew Marquis <mat at matmarquis.com>  
wrote:

>> The key problem about designing a responsive images solution around
>> user agent characteristics not image characteristics is that authors
>> will inevitably make more false assumptions about what images match
>> what user agent characteristics than user agents will. As a result,
>> user agents may be forced to misinterpret media queries in order to
>> provide their users with better user experiences.
>
> Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t this same reasoning apply to  
> layouts that depend heavily on media queries?

No, those are very different situations.

Layout is under author's control and is known to the author when the page  
is authored. UA characteristics are not, and different UAs will have  
different requirements.

Conversely from UA perspective: layouts vary wildly between pages, so UA  
can't really mess with them. Bandwidth/DPI requirements are known to UA  
and there can be same set of UA-specific rules that works for all pages.

-- 
regards, Kornel Lesiński