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Konqueror Passes the Acid2 Test Too
An anonymous reader writes "A month after Safari , and after a lot of controversy, Allan Sandfeld Jensen announced today that Konqueror passes the Acid2 test too. Half of the patches could be merged from Apple's Webcore, the rest needed to be rewritten from scratch."
Truism alert. Of course Apple could be doing a lot more and still be within the bounds of the license.
The more interesting question is; could Apple be doing less and still be within the bounds of the license.
Actually, given the nature of Acid2, it would only allow us to code _broken_ css on these browsers, and have it break _correctly_.
Acid2 tests a lot of corner-case mis-constructions of CSS, and tests that the browser handles the cock-up in the prescribed manner. It doesn't actually test that _correct_ CSS is handled correctly.
Its a good test, but its NOT a full CSS compliance test.
"Allan Sandfeld Jensen announced today that Konqueror passes the Acid2 test too. Half of the patches could be merged from Apple's Webcore, the rest needed to be rewritten from scratch.""
It's amazing what people can do when sufficiently motivated.
THIS sort of thing is EXACTLY what the khtml devs were complaining about. Yes, Apple does the bare minimum the LGPL requires with Webcore but the khtml devs accepted that.
The point these guys have been trying to get across over and over and over and over (repeat several thousand times for the extra dense) is that when Webcore can do something that khtml cannot IT IS NOT LAZINESS ON THE PART OF THE KHTML DEVELOPERS. WEBCORE CODE CANNOT JUST BE DROPPED INTO THE KHTML TREE. Webcore directly uses OS X features. That is one problem. The code bombs Apple drops periodically have inadequate documentation as to why some changes were made and not others.
Webcore at this point is a khtml fork that is about two years old. The khtml devs might as well be asked to merge Gecko code for all of the similarity they have at this point.
It certainly validates.
w .webstandards.org%2Fact%2Facid2%2Ftest.html%23top
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fww
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
When all popular web browsers do a decent job of rendering Acid2, web developers can use the features that have been promised for years, but have never been delivered by browser makers. Having Safari and Konqueror display Acid2 correctly gives the other browser manufacturers added incentive to implement the needed CSS2 features.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
Why should a web browser include a text editor? Stop propagating bloat and jack-of-all-trades syndrome.
Opera is making excellent progress with Acid2. Only a few more lines to go. They are treading softly with regression testing.
In related news: In an effort to open up their development process the developers of the Konqueror components KHTML, KJS and KSVG have launched the open Web portal KHTML.info. By providing a central contact point and source of information in form of an open Wiki the developers want to promote their work and embrace users and developers from both Open Source as well as commercial environments.
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
The lgpl says the work "in the preferred form for making modifications". This is assumed to just be the source code, but isn't necessarily
I am trolling
I registered iCab and have the 3.0 beta which claims to pass Acid2, and while it's not a mess like Firefox, my iCab rendering has a few flaws compared to the one in that screenshot. It must still be sensitive to certain settings (font size?) so I wouldn't say it passes perfectly yet.
They could use it from a proprietary, ecrypted version control system too. SHould they release that?
The clause in the GPL/LGPL is to prevent someone from obfuscating the code before release.
Apple does not have to release a change set of any kind. THey can simply release the entire source tree and they will be conforming with the license requirements. period. You may not like it, but that is valid.
By the way, a lot of developers using version control still don't use decent comments. You assume Apple does.
However, it is my understanding that you can download and compile the most recent version of WebCore (which passes Acid2) and Safari will use it.
Do not speak unless you can improve on the silence.