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Sure, authoring tools should help authors avoid mistakes and produce valid content. But the browser is a tool for the consumer of content, and there is no benef

Sure, authoring tools should help authors avoid mistakes and produce valid content. But the browser is a tool for the consumer of content, and there is no benefit for the user if it fails to to render some existing pages. It is like Windows jumping through hoops to support backwards compatibility even with buggy software. The interest of the customer is that the software runs.

crote 1y ago
> there is no benefit for the user if it fails to to render some existing pages What if the browser renders it incorrectly? If a corrupt tag combination leads to browser X parsing "<script>" as inline text but browser Y parsing it as a script tag, that could lead to serious security issues! Blindly guessing at the original author's intent whenever you encounter buggy content is a recipe for disaster. Sometimes it is to the user's benefit to just refuse to render it.
- detaro 1y ago
  and that's why HTML5 standardized the behavior, so both browsers will parse it the same, they just don't care if someone thinks it's "invalid" or not.
lucketone 1y ago
if developer accidentally left opening comment at the start of the html. Rhetorical question: Should the browser display page even if it is commented out? There is some bar for what is expected to work. If all browsers would consistently error out on unclosed tags, then it would definitely force developers to close tags, it would force it become common knowledge, second nature.
- bazoom42 1y ago
  As for your “rhetorical” question, you can find the answer in the HTML spec.
hulitu 1y ago
> Windows jumping through hoops to support backwards compatibility even with buggy software This was, maybe, true some 10 years ago. Now even old Windows programs (paint,wordpad) do not run on newer Windows > The interest of the customer is that the software runs Yes, but testing is expensive and we are Agile. /s
- pixl97 1y ago
  >Now even old Windows programs (paint,wordpad) do not run on newer Windows Eh, that's a really weird example as those are components of the operating system that are replaced with the OS upgrade.

crote 1y ago

> there is no benefit for the user if it fails to to render some existing pages What if the browser renders it incorrectly? If a corrupt tag combination leads to browser X parsing "<script>" as inline text but browser Y parsing it as a script tag, that could lead to serious security issues! Blindly guessing at the original author's intent whenever you encounter buggy content is a recipe for disaster. Sometimes it is to the user's benefit to just refuse to render it.

detaro 1y ago
and that's why HTML5 standardized the behavior, so both browsers will parse it the same, they just don't care if someone thinks it's "invalid" or not.

lucketone 1y ago

if developer accidentally left opening comment at the start of the html. Rhetorical question: Should the browser display page even if it is commented out? There is some bar for what is expected to work. If all browsers would consistently error out on unclosed tags, then it would definitely force developers to close tags, it would force it become common knowledge, second nature.

bazoom42 1y ago
As for your “rhetorical” question, you can find the answer in the HTML spec.

hulitu 1y ago

> Windows jumping through hoops to support backwards compatibility even with buggy software This was, maybe, true some 10 years ago. Now even old Windows programs (paint,wordpad) do not run on newer Windows > The interest of the customer is that the software runs Yes, but testing is expensive and we are Agile. /s

pixl97 1y ago
>Now even old Windows programs (paint,wordpad) do not run on newer Windows Eh, that's a really weird example as those are components of the operating system that are replaced with the OS upgrade.