Group blasts Internet Explorer 5.5 for lack of Web standards

Tue, 20 Aug 1996 01:00:00 GMT - MICROSOFT HAS ANGERED the Web Standards
Project for what the group says is the software giant's about-face on a
pledge to support Web standards in its upcoming version of Internet Explorer.

The Web Standards Project, a two-year-old coalition of developers and users
that promotes the use of standards in Web-page development, issued a
sharply worded statement Monday accusing Microsoft of abandoning its
promise to abide by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards in Internet
Explorer 5.5, due to ship in a few months.

The release said the Web Standards Project is "incensed by Microsoft's
arrogance" over a standards issue that is crucial to Web developers,
because the dominant position of the Windows operating system, into which
IE has been integrated, will make it nearly impossible for developers to
create documents that adhere to the W3C standards.

Web Standards Project group leader Jeffrey Zeldman said he was surprised to
find out last week through a Microsoft press release that IE 5.5 would not
support W3C standards, which Microsoft and other computer industry leaders,
including Netscape Communications, Microsoft's rival in the browser market,
agreed to support a few years ago.

Most notably, Zeldman cited the planned lack of support for portions of
CSS1 (Cascading Style Sheets level 1), a standard established in 1996, and
DOM (Document Object Model) 1 Core.

After consulting with other members of the Web Standards Project's steering
committee, Zeldman said a decision was made to criticize Microsoft in a
press release.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that in a development in the U.S.
government's antitrust case against Microsoft, the government is
considering a plan to force the company to grant royalty-free licenses to
Internet Explorer and open up the underlying code. Zeldman said, however,
that the Web Standards Project had no opinion on potential legal remedies
in the case.

"We're hoping that if we make enough noise, they may reconsider," Zeldman
said. "All they have to do is implement the standards."

Zeldman said Microsoft's decision to depart from Web standards in IE 5.5
struck him as "bizarre and schizophrenic" because just a few weeks ago
Microsoft released its IE 5.5 version for Macintosh users, which fully
implements the CSS1 standard and HTML 4.0.

"Microsoft in its Macintosh Explorer division did the right thing [with]
full implementation of CSS1 and HTML 4.0," Zeldman said.

"We don't understand why they don't think Windows users deserve the same
standard of standards compliance.

"If they could do it for their Macintosh group ... surely they can afford
to do it for the rest of the market."

Zeldman said Microsoft's decision was "very divisive," for the future of
the Web because developers who are compelled to write code for IE 5.5 will
be leaving Linux, Unix, Netscape, and Macintosh users out in the cold,
while developers whose code complies with W3C standards will leave Windows
users out in the cold.

In addition to CSS1, HTML 4.0, and DOM 1 Core, the Web Standards Project
supports implementation of XML 1.0 and ECMAScript, the standardized version
of JavaScript, Zeldman said.

Netscape last week released a beta version of Netscape 6, which the company
said fully adheres to the W3C standards.

No one at Microsoft would agree to be interviewed about the Web Standards
Project's charges.

The company's public relations company, Waggener Edstrom, however, provided
a response to questions submitted in via e-mail. The response said Monday
that Microsoft provides the highest standard compliance of any fully
released browser client. The e-mail message also said Microsoft has
implemented a significant portion of both DOM level 1 and CSS1 support, and
that the company will continue to offer support for industry standards.


The Web Standards Project can be found on the Web at
<http://www.webstandards.org>

Microsoft Corp., in Redmond, Wash., is at
http://www.microsoft.com

Margret Johnston is a Washington correspondent
for the IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate.
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