Cart
[Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries]
Elliotte Harold wrote: > XSLT failed to take off on the Web for one reason and one reason only: > Microsoft Internet Explorer's failure (continuing to this day) to > properly implement the standard. Had it been possible to use XSLT > directly on the client side, we'd be working with a very different Web > today. And if Microsoft hadn't fiddled with Java we'd be using applets today? > No, XSLT was not a perfect fit for the Web as it exists today, but it > was a damn sight better than anything else we had in 1999, HTML, CSS, > and JavaScript included. Interesting theory, but you seem to be forgetting that FO never went anywhere at all in web browsers, and that XSLT would have generated HTML+CSS in that absence, which I don't think has proven to be a compelling idea even in more recent years. > Had XSLT not been blocked by Microsoft, the > other pieces of the puzzle would have fallen into place. Wow! That's actually a much bigger claim than I've ever heard anyone make about XML's failure to reach the Web it aimed for. I don't think it's remotely true, but it's so large a claim that arguing against it feels like arguing against a revolution everyone longs for but never seems to come. I'd probably have to write magical realist stories to do it justice. > Search > engines would have learned to index raw XML, and browser vendors would > eventually have worked around the W3C's inevitable stasis, > bureaucracy, and disregard for actual users While I rarely find the W3C as exciting as its promoters, I also find your vision of browser vendors in charge only modestly compelling. The W3C contributes its share of stasis, but developers and especially users (who won't upgrade browsers like the crazy early adopters they obviously aren't) contribute as well. Historically, browser vendors (and not just Microsoft) have had a share as well. Opera wasn't particularly enthusiastic about adding XSLT, for instance. > as they now have with HTML > 5 and JavaScript. JavaScript seems to me to be thriving now in large part because it was ignored, and only tinkered with around the edges. Recent pushes for major change seem to have fallen back. HTML 5's story is yet to be written, so I'd be cautious in forecasting its triumph. (I expect it'll come, perhaps in bits and pieces, but I don't think it's the revolution either.) -- Simon St.Laurent http://simonstl.com/
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] |
