[plug] Standards

[Garry]

I read something yesterday which made my blood boil.

In the latest (April 2004) APC Magazine on page 26, David Emberton argues that web standards are big, dumb and don't work.

If Microsoft had written the article themselves I doubt if many of the words would have been much different.. Here is proof that Microsoft has a policy of being "anti-standard".

http://www.linux.cu/documentos/archivos/halloween2.html#_Toc427383683  <--- A microsoft tactic to combat competition is to:


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Beat commodity protocols / services

Linux's homebase is currently commodity network and server infrastructure. By folding extended functionality into today's commodity services and create new protocols, we raise the bar & change the rules of the game.

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Web standards - like accounting standards, politeness and ethics, make the world a MUCH nicer place to be in. David Emberton misses the point completely there. The trouble with having such a dominant player in the browser market is that it will try to use it's position (as it has done several times!!) to exclude competition, embrace and extend standards. Readers on the PLUG list are well aware of this stuff, but Emberton thinks it is a GOOD thing that it is happening!!

His reasons for hating CSS?

a. you need a degree to understand them
b. Microsoft doesn't care about them
c. they suck.

a. Any web developer worth his/her salt will understand why CSS is important, will know it makes web page development EASIER, and will make it a professional mission to muster enough IQ points to understand them..

b. Microsoft is not going to like anything that that does not benefit Microsoft.

c. No Mr. Emberton, you do. Your demonstrated reasoning ability is not worthy of publication IMHO.

I have CC'd this to the editor of the APC magazine, to D. Embleton and to the PLUG mailing list.

I hope the Editor of APC (Garth Montgomery) will in future cast a more discerning eye over the columnists he chooses to include in the future. I enjoy the product reviews, operating system agnostics and advertiser contacts. I don't mind spending the $10/month either if there is quality content inside.

Regards

Garry B.


APC magazine - http://www.apcmag.com
Perth Linux User Group - http://www.plug.org.au
http://www.linux.cu/documentos/archivos/halloween.html

-- 
Backward: A country which is offended by one bare breast, yet has enshrined in the Constitution the right to watch murder as entertainment and the right to carry firearms..