Browser wars, HTML test jam, and CSS awards at SXSW Interactive in Austin

When he opened the panel today to a packed room, Arun admitted that the "browser wars" title was a little sensationalist; mostly Brendan Eich, Chris Wilson, and Charles McCathieNevile are on the same side, trying to make the Web better for everybody.

The question from the audience that got the biggest reaction was "what would it take for you guys to implemement margins and padding in the same way?" Chris Wilson said they worked hard on that for the IE8 beta and asked that people give feedback on any remaining problems. He also said test suites help a lot with building interoperable implementations.

The question was more about CSS, but I took the mic to add that we're doing an HTML Working Group test jam this evening mostly on IRC and tomorrow at lunch.

After having 500 people join the HTML Working Group, it's somewhat comforting to see that searching the hundreds of SXSW panel descriptions gives not a single hit for HTML, but CSS is big enough to get its own category at the awards show. (Congrats to Kevin and the ficlets gang!)

On that note, everybody please join Bert Bos and me in welcoming our new CSS Working Group co-chairs, Daniel Glazman of Disruptive Innovations and Peter Linss of HP.