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What the W3C is doing wrong

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by jaqui

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Overall the World Wide Web Consortium isn't doing to badly, but they have several working groups that have adopted a model for their projects that kills the technology.

The latest such group is the CSS3 working group.
They did the same model for CSS3 as the XHTML group did for XHTML 1.1, they broke the specification into smaller documents.

If someone is wanting to use XHTML 1.1 for a website, they have to include multiple DTD lines to gain the functionality they require to display the pages they need for the website. Way to much effort when you can just use 1 DTD in XHTML 1.0

Now, the website developer wants to use CSS3 in their website(s). uh-oh, it's not a single document to learn the specification, it's 20+ documents, each only about a small part of the specification. You want to use a table, that's one set of documents.
you want to use boxes, that's a different set of documents.
you want to use images, another set of documents ...

Why is the W3C so in love with driving people into IGNORING their work that they have to make it HARDER for people to get the information from it?
[ NOTE: the HTML5 working group have not adopted this idiotic model, they are making it available as a single document / set of documents ]

The other big thing that is hurting the W3C is the changes to their website. They broke all their projects into different groupings, and ONLY link to these groupings from the main page. This wouldn't be so bad, [b][i]if they bothered to detail what each grouping contained [/i][/b] instead of assuming that every single person is going to know the grouping intuitively. I literally had to contact their webmaster to FIND the HTML5 working draft. The grouping does not make any sense to me and I doubt that I am the only person with that issue.

I bet their new website design was described in the requirements as "intuitive". The absolute WORST descriptor possible, because of the FACT that people do not all think or work the same.

8 replies

by jaqui

ranting about it would definitely only make me feel better. ;)
so I figure a well reasoned, detailed posting about it might have better luck. [ specially as J.Ja. is a part of the HTML5 working Group and could get a better reaction from them than an "outsider" ;) ]

edit to add:

since I was looking into the specs for that browser project I had to start fighting their new website layout a lot to get anywhere. I really rubs me the wrong way when it's not easy to find the info, then when you have no navigation back a level to get to the next segment it only makes the broken draft model used by the CSS3 group worse.

by hal 9000

They started off with a complete though somewhat complex system which the subsequent developers broke down to smaller Sub Systems to make working it easier.

What happened was that you ended up with Experts in each Subsystem who had no knowledge of what the [i]"Improvements"[/i] that they came up with for their subsystem did to the overall system. They continued to [b]"Improve"[/b] the subsystems till the entire system stopped working and there was no one around who understood enough of the entire system to fix it.

OK I'm not completely sure what book/movie it came from as it was a long time ago and that description was a very small part as an aside not part of the main plot but it stuck with me as being very pertinent. I still think it was Logan's Run though. ;)

Col

by santeewelding

When you get old. The good part is that few if any have lived long enough to gainsay you. You get to elaborate and embellish to heart's content, nobody the wiser.

by hal 9000

Sonic Screwdriver

Cures everything Windows.

It's just such a great tool. Point it at the computer press the button for 5 seconds then unplug the thing take it outside and run a 40 Ton Excavator over it. Works Every Time and never any complaints because I tell the owners that they can hold the computer if they like. :^0

Col

by ansugisalas

can mean, that understanding it cannot be learned... you're either born with it, or you're not. :p
That seems like what's going on there...

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