It’s just data

Purity Smurity

Mark Pilgrim: Anyone who tells you that HTML should be kept “pure” (presumably by ignoring browser makers, or ignoring authors, or both) is simply misinformed. HTML has never been pure, and all attempts to purify it have been spectacular failures, matched only by the attempts to replace it.

I strongly agree with Mark’s statement.  Furthermore, I believe that it is a useful predictor of which parts of HTML will ultimately succeed and which parts will ultimately fail.

I’ll add that Mark’s closing statement that The ones that win are the ones that ship. is correct albeit incomplete.  Shipping is necessary but not sufficient.

Mark himself wrote: “That’s not to say that all shipping code wins [...] Code is necessary but not sufficient for success.” So, the incompleteness was already stated. It would be more interesting to know which part you believe is missing from its statement.

Posted by Giulio Piancastelli at

Upon rereading, I believe that Mark said everything that needs to be said on this point, so I’ve struck the last paragraph from this post.

Posted by Sam Ruby at

It’s a question I want to ask of everyone involved in the software space — from resume-bearing interviewees to the self-absorbed braggarts at tech happy hours — “So, what have you shipped?”

Posted by Joe Grossberg at

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