Re: Mosaic2.0 and ISINDEX

Rik Harris (rik@rdt.monash.edu.au)
Tue, 16 Nov 93 18:15:16 +1100

Terry Allen writes:
> Mosaic2.0's treatment of the ISINDEX tag is now in violation of the
> HTML+ DTD. According to the DTD, the tag is allowed only in
> HEAD---that is, it's metainformation about the doc, and was thus
> properly implemented in the frame of 1.2.
>
> Now Mosaic renders a search field in the document wherever the tag
> appears: if it appears properly in HEAD, the search field is at the
> top of the doc, but if it appears improperly elsewhere, the field is
> still rendered.
>
> If browser developers won't stick to the DTD, there's no point in
> having one.

I seem to recognise this argument from a few months ago. I believe what came
out of it then was something like:

- browsers should follow the DTD and render DTD-compliant documents correctly
- browser behaviour for documents that do not conform to the DTD is undefined
- browser implementers should be allowed to interpret non-conformant
documents loosely so they can provide something that still looks OK
- authors should NOT use the browser as a DTD conformance testing tool

My own comments:

Marc and the NCSA team have done a great job implementing the HTML and HTML+
stuff. Mosaic was one of the first (if not _the_ first) to implement forms,
and allow people to actually try this stuff out before HTML+ is set in stone.
If you want to bash Mosaic, I didn't notice your browser...If you don't want
SGML in w3, then don't blame it on Mosaic.

rik.

--
Rik Harris - rik.harris@fcit.monash.edu.au
+61 3 560-3265 (AH & ans.mach)      +61 3 565-3227 (BH)
Department of Robotics and Digital Technology, FCIT, Clayton Campus,
Monash University, Australia   http://www.vifp.monash.edu.au/people/rik.html