Representing compatibility and standards: a case study of Web browsers

Abstract

We present a notational system to represent compatibility relations for products, standards, and, when necessary, the converters implementing compatibility. The notation is graphical and objectoriented. We apply this notation to the domain of web browsers. We analyze the compliance of some of the most popular web browsers to standards and the compatibility of their bookmarks. From this analysis, different approaches to compatibility emerge, depending on the relevance of the products in the marketplace. ntroduction Compatibility plays a significant role in many markets: products are often no more than large systems made of smaller par t s that plug and fit into each other according t o some compatibility scheme. Companies have control over their own compatibil i ty schemes, and often also know the compatibility schemes of their competitors. Compatibility is a strong consideration for those looking to purchase products that interoperate wi th other products. Users are concerned with compatibility internally--when they assemble systems--and externally--when they communicate with other users who use similar products. The world telephony system is a good example of this concept. It allows communication between any two phones on the planet. In addition, it is an example of complex systems, i.e., systems made of several components and offering complex features that live with mixed values of compatibility and incompatibility. Software faces the same issues of compatibility as other kinds of products---camera systems, modular furniture, etc.--but software offers an extraordinary degree of freedom in the type and level of compatibility. In this paper, w e focus on web browsers, an application domain meant to provide interoperability between users. We analyze compatibility with standards and compatibility of bookmarks between browsers.