On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 3:34 PM, Chris Webb <chris.webb@elastichosts.com> wrote:
Sam Johnston <samj@samj.net> writes:

> Right, obviously at least one format needs to be mandated and that format
> should obviously be as widely supported and easily translated to others as
> possible.

Nobody will be able to write portable code using the formats you don't
mandate. That's unfortunate if the only mandated rendering forces you to
pull in tens of thousands of lines of library code...

Nobody ever said they would be able to... portability/interoperability are very different requirements to convenience/integration. Just because clients can't rely on support of a given format does not mean it shouldn't be offered at all.

As but one example, scripting is a strong requirement that requires a text rendering, but we all agree that a text rendering does not go far enough. By that reasoning alone we need to support multiple formats, and this is but another area where implementors can innovate without hurting interoperability (for example by serving up a XUL rendering for Firefox users).

Sam