3 ms·

Except moving to PNG was progress...

• jacquesm 17y ago
  It could have been a backwards compatible extension to GIF instead. More formats = fragmentation = consumer confusion and problems. Progress is not a single variable either, there are plenty of ways that you can define progress that are more or less orthogonal to each other. Forward, sideways and 'up' are all movements that you can interpret as 'progress' depending on where you are and where you want to be. From that point of view PNG was sideways and 'around' rather than forward. Any kind of dataformat, any kind of protocol, anything that is not a completely closed box that performs a function (an 'appliance') should be as open as possible. And that should be enshrined in law, interfaces and formats are automatically in the public domain, and have to be documented. PNG as a GIF replacement is superior, for most applications. But if you think in terms of browser support then you could interpret it as a step back during the introduction phase as well.
  • mbrubeck 17y ago
    For example, the PNG standard still isn't fully supported by Internet Explorer. Who knows what could have been different if the early standard were open and extensible (without patent difficulties)..
  • Quarrelsome 17y ago
    I'll back this up. Been banging my head against a brick wall because WindowsCE doesn't load .pngs properly..... sometimes (it's one of _those_). Convert to .jpg and everything is fine.
    • eru 17y ago
      Yes, but .jpg is not always what you want. The artifacts can look ugly on schematic drawings.