This was unknown to me - and we did have de-facto standards. Trial and error is often the mother of innovation. And it was fun to explore so long as the inevitable "our way is the only way" competitive nature results in a bi-partisan battle over wider options. Beta v. VHS, etc.
Chris Heilmann codepo8@toot.cafe
 @codepo8
22 Feb 2021
Replying to @mholzschlag
Layer was like iframe. Under the hood any absolutely positioned DIV was treated by Netscape like a layer. It's interesting: back then 90% of issues was because of non transparency of the platform. No standard, no documentation. This manifested trial and error as a way to build.

Feb 22, 2021 · 11:01 AM UTC

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Replying to @mholzschlag
De facto standards are a dangerous thing. We all used knives on screws at one time or another. It is the first de facto tool at hand with lots of usage. It also messes up both knives and screws.
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I'll never forget when I told Dean Edwards "there are no standards" - he said "Don't say that!" And I had to ask, why would we have emerged a movement (several) to promote them if we had them in the first place. How does this compare to ecma and JS do you think?
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