Posted by John Dunlop on 10/26/06 15:56

Ben C:

> [John Dunlop:]
>
> > Who is to say what counts as 'rendered as expected'? Expected by who?
>
> W3C.

The W3C neither holds expectations about nor dictates how an HTML
document, even with an associated author stylesheet, should be
rendered.

> > If someone takes it upon themselves to prescribe and proscribe
> > different renderings, who granted them the authority to do so?
>
> They do that for HTML,

The W3C do not prescribe and proscribe different renderings for HTML.

> although I don't know if they were actually ever "granted the authority".

Bearing in mind that the W3C's founder, Tim Berners-Lee, invented the
World Wide Web, you could argue that they, the consortium, have as much
"right" to make such decrees as anyone.

> > The interworking specifications do not restrict the rendering of HTML
> > documents, but actually allow for different renderings.
>
> Yes, but there are W3C standards for rendering as well.

Not so much standards, in so far as the W3C isn't a standards body, as
specifications; but yes, I am aware of the CSS recommendations.

However, stylesheets can be stripped out, turned off, unsupported in
whole or in part, overriden, or even have no bearing on a particular
user-agent (or medium). CSS2.1 defines CSS2.1; it doesn't define how a
document will be rendered. No "standard", W3C-endorsed or otherwise,
defines how documents *will* be rendered.

> You're right though that if you publish HTML with no styles, you should
> have few or no expectations about rendering.

Well, CSS2.1 offers a default stylesheet for HTML4.01 (Appendix D), so
you could make reasonable guesses about how a document would be
rendered if the only stylesheet applied was a user-agent one *and* you
were familiar with the user-agent and medium in question. But even
with an author stylesheet covering the gamut of HTML elements, I would
hold no expectations about rendering.

--
Jock

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