Personally, I think that HTML and CSS are very elegant, and although W3C is certainly not in a hurry, I think it is probably fair to say that a certain browser restrains web design more than the technology itself.
CSS3 supports fantastic things like web fonts with @fontface. Javascript engines are becoming faster and faster, and you can use things like the John Resig processing port , which would have been unimaginable many years ago.
We need to accelerate the pace of introducing new browsers, and we need to see how suppliers try to encourage their users to upgrade.
I think it is a mistake to think that abstractions are a negative thing, and they point out some problems with the underlying technology - the technologies naturally evolve through abstraction. There is some inconsistency in your post in the sense that you condemn the need for abstraction, but then indicate that you want consistency - consistency between clients is achieved through abstraction. I no longer have to worry about how different clients handle the DOM - jquery does this for me. CSS hacks with the same token are really not needed, and it is quite acceptable to serve a different stylesheet for this browser; the rendering difference between the other main engines is pretty minimal.
Also think that we still use a lot of “old” technologies (Unix, c, C ++, to name a few), because they are functional, elegant and well designed.
Bayard randel
source share