also... SGML/DTD

[Garance A Drosehn]

Eric Litman <Eric_Litman at nxstep.com> writes:
> In nxstep.omniweb on 27 Jun 95 17:08:48 GMT, you wrote:
> #    Another addtion/feature for OmniWeb's next (or future releases)
> # would be the ability to really read DTD/SGML, maybe a preferences
> # selection to do either strict DTD/SGML or HTML.
>
> This fundamentally violates one of the key principals the internet
> was built upon, and that is to generate strictly, accept loosely.

No it doesn't.  It even sounds like a very good idea to me.

> What exactly would be the benefit of restricting yourself from
> viewing the nearly countless number of pages on the web which do
> not conform precisely to the latest DTD?

The key is the comment "a preferences selection".  Ie, you can read
sloppy HTML if you want to, or you can see what happens if you only
accept documents that fit the official specifications.  Why would
you want this?  Well, how can you tell that *your* pages (ones you
write...) are "generated strictly" unless you have something strict
to look at them with?  By eyeballing them?  My eyeballs aren't that
good.  They tend to see what I want them to see, especially when
it's something I just wrote.

Clearly this would have to be an option though (if it was done at
all), since the key principal for HTML really seems to be "generate
whatever you want, and if Netscape accepts it then tell everyone
else that the browsers that they're using is wrong".  This is a
"key principal" that I'd like to see done away with...

---
Garance Alistair Drosehn     =     gad at eclipse.its.rpi.edu
ITS Systems Programmer            (handles NeXT-type mail)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;           Troy NY    USA