From: Sally Khudairi (info@zotgroup.com)
Date: Wed Mar 29 2000 - 06:00:11 PST
Finish Job
Sender: owner-newslist@zotgroup.com
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For Immediate Release
Contact --
Jeffrey Zeldman
Group Leader
jeffrey@zeldman.com
+1.212.725.0847
Todd Fahrner
fahrner@pobox.com
+1.415.278.9900 ext 241
Dori Smith
dori@chalcedony.com
+1.707.473.0398
WEB STANDARDS PROJECT PRAISES IE5/MAC,
URGES MICROSOFT TO "FINISH THE JOB"
http://www.webstandards.org -- 29 March 2000 -- The Web Standards
Project (WaSP) today praised Microsoft's thorough implementation of
HTML 4 and CSS 1 in the Macintosh version of Internet Explorer 5.
However, the WaSP cautioned that no browser can be considered fully
standards-compliant until it supports XML and the DOM, and
the group urged Microsoft to take IE5/Mac to the next level.
"IE5/Mac offers the highest real-world standards compliance of any browser
yet shipped," said group leader Jeffrey Zeldman, who also praised the
browser for focusing on accessibility. "An innovative Text Zoom feature
allows the visually impaired to increase the size of type on a Web page,"
Zeldman noted. "Web users will no longer be penalized for the poor
authoring practices of some developers."
The WaSP had further praise for the browser's novel "DOCTYPE"-sensitive
rendering strategy, which delivers outstanding HTML4/CSS1 compliance or
emulation of many older, nonstandard behaviors at the Web designer's
discretion. But along with the applause, the group reminded Microsoft that
meaningfully complete standards compliance must include support for XML 1.0
and the DOM 1 Core.
"XML 1.0 has been stable since February 1998; it is long past time for
browser makers to finish the job of supporting it," said WaSP steering
committee member Tim Bray, co-editor of XML 1.0. Noting that full XML
support will enable a new generation of Web applications to offload
interactive application logic to the browser, making the whole Web faster,
cheaper, and more productive for users, Bray added: "Today's browsers,
however sophisticated, are still more or less FTP with pictures. The way
to change that is to implement XML and the DOM (neither by itself is
sufficient), and we're still waiting for that to happen."
ABOUT THE WEB STANDARDS PROJECT [WaSP]
The Web Standards Project is an international grassroots coalition of Web
developers and users fighting for standards on the Web, by calling attention
to browser incompatibilities that fragment the medium, prevent many people
from using the Web, and add 25% to the cost of developing all sites. The
WaSP urges all browser manufacturers to support existing standards before
incorporating proprietary innovations, and is working to educate Web authors
and Web-related software developers so that we may create a Web that works
for everyone. For more information on WaSP, please see
http://www.webstandards.org/
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