Re:Firefox on the Brink?
by JumpCrisscross on Tuesday December 05, 2023 @03:07PM
(#38536263)
> Is it really a standard if no one implements it in a way that everyone agrees on?
Plenty of standards are guidelines. The point is the website’s purpose trumps dogmatic adherence to a standard. If the site works against standards but not in the browser, it’s a failure.
But we can still have websites that work against existing browsers while also being strictly conforming to the standard, surely?
Basically, no proprietary features whatsoever. No draft features. No optionally-supported standard features without a fallback that fully covers the same underlying use case.
Is it really a standard if the dominant vendor just ignores the standard and does what it wants because then it becomes the "actual standard" ?
As a (terrible) example, look at FIPS. The government has the power to mandate a standard that everyone needs to implement. If instead of "supporting specific browser vendors" they "support a specific standard" then all vendors have a target that works with an agreed upon common ground.