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> “…the proprietary CSS-like properties they have let the whole world use in iOS and Android devices, harming the Open Web.” It seems the W3C is opposed to gra

> “…the proprietary CSS-like properties they have let the whole world use in iOS and Android devices, harming the Open Web.” It seems the W3C is opposed to grassroots innovation from browser vendors without having every feature pass through their committees first. I don't buy the arguments about monopolization, and if most of your user base is on iOS or Android then it makes perfect business sense to prioritize those platforms when building out your design. Graceful degradation and progressive enhancement are widely recognised good practices, but by no means are they mandatory for the success of the 'Open Web'. The benefit Apple has brought by not bundling Flash with their iOS devices (suddenly that 'monopolization' doesn't look so bad, does it?) far outweighs any drawbacks caused by the implementation of non-standard features in WebKit. In fact, you know what the real enemy of the 'Open Web' is? The use of terms like ‘de jure’. In the real Open Web, there's no room for central governance, and no tolerance of the assertion by any organization that they represent the sole font of truth.

Dinoguy1000 15y ago
We had decentralized web standards in the past, with browser vendors implementing new markup features on their (and, to a lesser extent, their users') whims rather than marching in lockstep with some "central governance" - the First Browser War, where Microsoft and Netscape were slinging it out for market dominance, adding new features as quickly as possible to gain more users and simultaneously create a captive market by way of incompatible markup. Yes, this gave us Javascript (if I understand my history correctly), but it also gave us such abominations as the "marquee" and "blink" tags, and no one who worked through those times as a web developer looks back on them fondly. I am not saying the current situation is ideal, but it is better by leaps and bounds than what it used to be, and what you are proposing.

Dinoguy1000 15y ago

We had decentralized web standards in the past, with browser vendors implementing new markup features on their (and, to a lesser extent, their users') whims rather than marching in lockstep with some "central governance" - the First Browser War, where Microsoft and Netscape were slinging it out for market dominance, adding new features as quickly as possible to gain more users and simultaneously create a captive market by way of incompatible markup. Yes, this gave us Javascript (if I understand my history correctly), but it also gave us such abominations as the "marquee" and "blink" tags, and no one who worked through those times as a web developer looks back on them fondly. I am not saying the current situation is ideal, but it is better by leaps and bounds than what it used to be, and what you are proposing.