Re: HTML and International Standards

wmperry@spry.com
Tue, 19 Jul 1994 07:48:57 +0200

ahby@naps.com writes:

>I have been watching with interest the discussions in this list. It seems
>to me that there is a family of software interfaces in this community that
>are mature enough to merit "standardization". By this I mean the formal
>codification of the interfaces into a standard by a ISO accredited
>standards development organization (perhaps even ISO itself). By codifying
>the stable interfaces, WWW application developers will be in a better
>position to develop software that they can be confident will continue to be
>supported by conforming implementaitons of both servers and clients. One of
>the most significant advantages of standardization is that core features of
>a system can be locked down even as the fringe continues to evolve. This
>has been done successfully with other Open Systems interfaces such as
>IEEE's POSIX.* and ANSI/ISO C.

>It appears to me that the interfaces that are ready for standardization
>include parts of HTML (an SGML DTD), and some of the WWW library
>interfaces. However, I am certainly no expert.

Seems like these are both being pursued already. Dan Connolly and Tim
Berners-Lee are working on the HTML specification and turning it into an
official RFC. Seems like the MIT and CERN partnership will most likely
take care of the client-side API.

-Bill P.