Buzz Archives
By Subject:
- Accessibility
- April Fools
- Authoring Tools
- Bizarre
- Browsers
- Bugs
- BUZZ Links
- CMS
- CSS
- Curriculum
- Design
- DOM
- Education
- Emerging Technology
- General
- HTML/XHTML
- Internationalization
- Legal
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- Opinion
- Outreach
- Training
- translations
- Usability
- Validation
- W3C/Standards Documentation
- WaSP Announcement
- WaSP Asks the W3C
- Web Standards (general)
- WSCafe
By Task Force:
By Month:
- February 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- August 2010
- June 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- November 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
- July 2002
- June 2002
- April 2002
- March 2002
- December 2001
- September 2001
- November 2000
- July 2000
- April 2000
- March 1999
- October 1998
- August 1998
The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.
Recent Buzz
Call for action on Vendor Prefixes
By Rachel Andrew | February 9th, 2012
When I first became involved with The Web Standards Project I was, like most of my peers, either building two completely different sites to support the version 4 behemoths – Internet Explorer and Netscape, or making a decision as to which browser people should use to view the site.
Internet Explorer 6, despite all of the well known issues, was a breath of fresh air. We could use a lot of CSS2, we could lay out our pages using CSS, and many people decided that Internet Explorer was the browser they were going to support. This led to a raft of “only works in Internet Explorer” sites and applications, the reason why we are still stuck with IE6 today.
Ten years later. In many ways we are in the place that we wanted to be, when we were campaigning for web standards adoption by developers and browser manufacturers. Our browsers do support W3C specifications. We don’t have rafts of crazy bugs in standard features or vendor specific implementations of those features that vary wildly. I can build a complex layout and load it up in Internet Explorer 9, the latest Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome and it all look pretty much the same. This is what we were asking for.
It could not be said however, that all browsers are equal in 2012. Some have moved more quickly to implement parts of the CSS3 specification even when they are just at Working Draft status. Browsers have implemented these new features using Vendor Prefixes, enabling them to implement a feature that might change as it goes through the W3C process. Vendor Prefixes to some extent have helped to prevent the situation arising again where we have a standard feature implemented in different ways by different browsers. Thinking back over our history I believe that to be a good thing.
Whether you like Vendor Prefixes or not, we have a problem. Due to the rise in mobile browser usage, and many of those mobile browsers being based on WebKit, many developers have decided to essentially only use the -webkit- prefix, even for properties that have been implemented by other browsers. Today Daniel Glazman, W3C CSS Working Group Co-chairman, wrote a blog post, Call for action: the open web needs you now!. He, and the W3C CSS Working Group is concerned that if this continues, other browser manufacturers will simply start implementing the -webkit prefix.
This approach seems very likely. If other browser manufacturers have implemented these features under their own prefix, yet web developers do not use those prefixes, then it makes their browsers look less capable than those based on WebKit. By simply implementing the -webkit prefix sites will look better in these browsers.
If this happens then we end up with a web once again controlled by one browser manufacturer. Once again we run the risk of having sites built only for one platform, and finding it very hard to get that platform to go away if things move on. Please read the above post. Please think about it every time you have to ensure your site works well in a browser that is over ten years old. Please do your bit to prevent -webkit becoming a de facto standard and hurting the Open Web.
How can you help?
- Read the original post – Call for action: the open web needs you now!
- If you have sites that test for WebKit browsers or only implement -webkit prefixes please take some time and update any -webkit-only property to use the other vendor-specific prefixes and non-prefixed versions.
- Sign this petition & pledge telling browser makers not to implement the
-webkit-*vendor prefix and promising to update the sites under your control. - Remove -webkit-only testing from repositories on GitHub – Pre-fix the web!
More commentary on the issue
- Remy Sharp: Vendor Prefixes about to go South
- Gilles Vandenoostende: On Vendor Prefixes
- Christian Heilmann: Now vendor prefixes have become a problem, want to help fix it?
- Bruce Lawson: On the Vendor Prefixes Problem
- Aaron Gustafson: This must not happen!
- Eric Meyer: Unfixed
Filed in General | Comments (2)
More Buzz articles
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| An End to Aging IE Installs | Aaron Gustafson |
| Beyond the Blue Beanie? | Stephanie (Sullivan) Rewis |
| The Sherpas are Here | Aaron Gustafson |
| HTML5? Check. Accessible HTML5? Um… | Aaron Gustafson |