Re: what options do we have was Re: POSIX shell\; bash ash pdksh \& /bin/sh

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@datasync.com>]

Hi,
>>"Clint" == Clint Adams <schizo@debian.org> writes:

 >> Oh, wonderful. Yes, it is broken. But just like all the
 >> popular browsers out there, we should try and accept broken scripts

 Clint> If you mean the interpretation of bad HTML, I must disagree
 Clint> strongly.  Web browsers should be completely intolerant of
 Clint> non-compliance.

	In your (arguably) laudable single minded devotion to
 technical purity, you are missing the point of HTML browsers and the
 web: information transfer.

	When I write HTML, I validate it against a standard DTD, for
 that ensures maximal dissemincation of my data; however, when I use a
 browser, I interested in the information the author has to convey,
 not their expertisae in coding HTML.

	So, when I read my sister-in-law's page about the family and
 pictures of the kids, I want to see what she has written, even if she
 does not know HTML and uses claris front page that produces
 excruciatingly bad HTML.

	If you foist a browser that fails to display that in some
 misguided "pure HTML" evangelism, that browser is broken, and so is
 any distribution that makes it a default.

	Reliability. *RELIABILITY*. Fault tolerance. Pedantic broswers
 that whimper and fail at the first ill formed HTML are unreliable,
 and should be discarded in ivory towers.

	This is not the university, people, we are putting together a
 real world distribution; and while our HTML pages and scripts are
 held to the highest standards, our interoreters and browsers need to
 be more fault tolerant.

	manoj
-- 
 "It is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them."
 Alfred Adler
Manoj Srivastava  <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05  CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E


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