A Long Digression into How Standards Are Made

http://diveintohtml5.info/past.html#history-of-the-img-element

by hmsimha • 3 years ago

1 2 3 years ago

webmaven• 3 years ago

I believe this was last updated in 2011.

hmsimha• 3 years ago

Indeed, the book itself is not going to be a current source on web APIs. However, the section about the history of the <img> element is still interesting.

As the tweet which was shared here today mentions, it's now the 30th anniversary of this announcement by Andreessen, but I thought the content here had more depth than the previously-shared tweet, as a meditation on the formation of standards in the wild west web. I specifically liked this assertion by the author (after visiting all the proposed alternatives):

But none of this answers the original question: why do we have an <img> element? Why not an <icon> element? Or an <include> element? Why not a hyperlink with an include attribute, or some combination of rel values? Why an <img> element? Quite simply, because Marc Andreessen shipped one, and shipping code wins

A Long Digression into How Standards Are Made

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