4 ms·
While I do accept the point, I think part of this is just that Google and Apple are the companies doing a large amount of work in the browser space. Because of
by snet0 5y ago
While I do accept the point, I think part of this is just that Google and Apple are the companies doing a large amount of work in the browser space. Because of this, they are likely to be the companies who see the hole that should be filled, or the opportunity to improve something.
Who are the people that should be making browser spec proposals, if not the people building browsers?
Yes, it sucks if you want to write your own browser, and now have to play catch up with the big boys throwing their weight around. But I don't think this is points against Google or Apple. Our browser technology shouldn't be held back by some romantic dream of individuals being able to build one from scratch, despite what many HNers seem to think. Even the best mechanics and engineers will struggle to build a car comparable to whatever rolls off of the large production lines. (I understand maybe that's a poor analogy, since you don't need all the bells and whistles of a new Toyota to be road-legal, while you do kind of need to keep up with the spec in order to be internet-usable (although there still are some IE11 holdouts..)).
- matsemann 5y agoMy point isn't from a "a single person should be able to build this" perspective. But from a "big players misuse this to grab market share" perspective. Like how youtube was slow in Firefox for years, since they used APIs only existing in Chrome. Others follow suit, and thus other browsers are forced to either implement the same thing (thus making it a "standard") or lose market share since stuff works better in other browsers.
- snet0 5y agoSure, this sucks. I guess the counterargument is that then, given that the new API in Chrome is an improvement over the standard, waiting for this API to be actually accepted and written into the spec is a long, arduous process during which Chrome is unable to implement an objective improvement to their user experience. My concern is basically that if we force browsers to be spec-compliant and wait for the due process concerning new features, we pump the brakes on everything, and we risk stalling genuinely beneficial updates.