Word From The WaSP
10.01.98
Where's the beef?
Greetings gals and guys!
Pretend for a moment that it's 1996 again. It was a good year for the web and things were looking better. Microsoft was making bold pronouncements. Do you remember these words?
"The Web has been starved for well-designed graphical layout and presentation extensions. We've had too many arbitrary and poor extensions to the basic language of the Web, HTML. Cascading Style Sheets is a solid architecture that provides immediate answers to Web designers' request for rich styles, and is also a foundation we can build upon in the future. Microsoft was excited to commercially introduce CSS1 earlier this year, and even more excited to deliver CSS1 Advanced with the upcoming release of Internet Explorer 4."
– John Ludwig, Vice President of Internet Client and Collaboration Tools, Microsoft
It was a bold pronouncement. But if you're like me then you know that we're STILL waiting for that solid architecture of CSS-1 to be implemented in ANY browser. And Microsoft?
Well let me tell you something. Word from the WaSP Steering Committee is that MS is doing their old hemming and hawing act and asking us to show them a solid example of a website that was hurt by their poor implementation of CSS-1. You and I know that a bad page gets fixed with workarounds before it hits the web so MS is asking a question in order to stall us. But has The WaSP let you down yet?
It seems that one of The WaSP's CSS Samurai recalled how someone at the W3C (You remember them, right? The people who help define the standards?) tried to make the W3C site work with standards compliant CSS. That page couldn't be made live due to the horrible implementations in the browsers of the time. It was hoped that one day perhaps someone would get it right.
The WaSP is here to tell you that someone finally did get it right and it wasn't Microsoft. Want to see for yourself? Take your favorite browser on over to here and look at the sample of the W3C frontpage. Go ahead, take all the browsers you've got. Be sure to take the latest version of IE too. The WaSP tried them all and you know which one got it? Opera!
So Microsoft, The WaSP just has to wonder if you're ever going to deliver on your promises? It's 1998 and rumor has it that you're releasing IE5 first quarter of 99. CSS-1 was finished in 96. In the immortal words of one of the queens of cheesy television commercials, where's the beef?!?
Until next time loyal readers,
Keep the Buzz!
–The WaSP
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