Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Pitfalls and Perks of Adopting a New Standard

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the don't-argue-do-it-my-way dept.

Monta writes to tell us that IBM DeveloperWorks has an interesting article about the pros and cons of 'adopting a standard before it becomes one'. From the article: "Whether a standard will succeed and be widely adopted is ambiguous at first, regardless of who endorses it -- a major player or a fringe element. So if most people don't like to welcome the new guy, why would they put all their eggs in a standards basket when that basket might not exist tomorrow?"

4 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah... by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Whether a standard will succeed and be widely adopted is ambiguous at first, regardless of who endorses it -- a major player or a fringe element

    ...we really need a standard way of adopting a new standard.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  2. Sticking to an old standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    So if most people don't like to welcome the new guy


    I, for one, welcome the new guy!

  3. Sometimes... by Stanistani · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Getting a product to market with a new technology can advance the adoption of a standard.

    Chicken, meet egg.

    Of course it's a gamble...
    but that's one way to make the big money.

    --
    You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
  4. Examples by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Informative

    For one example of pitfalls and perks, consider stylesheets. Netscape threw their weight behind JSSS, Internet Explorer threw their weight behind CSS. CSS got taken up by the W3C, JSSS got chucked. Internet Explorer 3 was first with CSS support, Netscape 3 had none, and Netscape 4's CSS support was an abysmal wrapper around JSSS.

    Another example is XSLT; Microsoft implemented a draft version, and ended up with support that was incompatible with the final specification and later versions of their own browser.

    Of course, who was first doesn't matter in the long run. What matters is an ongoing commitment to conformance - being first with partial support means nothing if you do as Microsoft did with CSS and forget to implement the rest for years.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha