A new understanding of web standards

Translated from: What are Web standards?
Chinese: What is a Web standard?
Original author: Nicholas C. Zakas
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Now HTML5, the major browsers are claiming to support or will support the features of HTML, as if HTML5 can make the Internet better, so that the site developers to liberate the same. Perhaps the people have been suppressed for too long, perhaps everyone is too optimistic, perhaps the standard really has been deeply rooted. Looking at the hot HTML5, thinking about the embarrassment of XHTML standards, maybe this time looking at this article at the end of 2008 will give us a better understanding of what standards are, what standards can do, and what we should do ...-god fly

In the process of web development, you will hear words "standard" many times. I mean, a lot of times. Internet Explorer is widely criticized for not supporting standards, and opera claims to be the only browser that really strives to fully implement standards, and developers around the world are blaming each other for not complying with standards. The funny thing is that most people simply don't understand what standards are or how they turn out to be.

Let's start with the number one myth on the Internet: the World Wide Web has created standards. This is completely wrong. The goal of the consortium is to create standards, but it cannot create them in practice. Why, then? Because, quite simply, the standard is what most people decide to do. Therefore, the Web page standard is the majority of browser manufacturers decided to follow. The consortium can recommend how it should be done, but it has no right to enforce it. If the consortium can really create standards, then we will not still be waiting for the relevant browsers to support XHTML, which was completed in 1999. The consortium does not have the ability to force browser vendors to do anything; everyone can decide what they want to do. Even browser vendors that participate in the world of the world's businesses do not follow certain specifications (as is the case with all browser vendors).

So if my partner and I get together this weekend and come up with a cool JavaScript feature, then we'll be like the same. If we're sure that Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft, and opera can implement this feature, we've created a new standard--just like the same as the same. No official logo or stamp can make something standard, it's just made up of two or more browsers.

The world's standard has traditionally been a bad thing to create. What they are really good at is documenting and standardizing what is already implemented in the browser. This led to the creation of HTML 4 and Dom 1, mostly based on the innovation in IE 4. Yes, students, Microsoft is more influential in creating these standards than any other browser because they are moving forward and innovating and can't wait for someone to tell them they're good.

In fact, many of Microsoft's innovations have become their own standards, such as innerHTML attributes, XMLHttpRequest objects, through DesignMode rich-text editing. No browsers dare not support these; This makes them standard. The consortium is now taking a few processes to introduce them into the HTML 5 specification and the XMLHttpRequest specification .

Scolding Microsoft for not supporting standards seems to be becoming popular, but one can say that if the world's most popular browsers do not implement something, it will not really become a standard. Conservatively estimated Internet Explorer has a market share of around 80% Worldwide (2008). That means only 20% of Internet users are using a "compatible standard" browser. When only 20% of the users on the market use it, will it be a standard? Think about it.

The truth is that Microsoft is just following the leader of the most stubborn company on the Internet: Netscape (Netscape). Netscape was the first to say "We want to do what we want to do" and then introduced the <blink> tag. History shows that the web has also progressed as the browser makers began to innovate. Microsoft is not the only one to do so. Mozilla has also implemented non-standard features, such as Xsltprocessor;safari implementation of <canvas> tags, Opera implemented <event-source> tags and Window.opera objects. However, no one complains that they have made their own things and innovations ... Only Microsoft is a bad boy. Why is that?

As Alex Russell repeatedly pointed out , innovation is not in the hands of the consortium. Real innovation, can drive the development of the Internet innovation, need to come from the browser manufacturer. Let the free market decide the most useful features in the browser and let the consortium standardize it. That's the real standard. Wait until the great HTML 5 specification is completed in 2022 and will not push the network forward. You have to make a smart guy like Alex develop a browser to do it (push web progress).