Isn’t the whole point of a specification to establish fixed point of reference so that all parties implementing the standard can ensure they have a common baseline of compatibility?
No, the point of a specification is to provide an accurate description of what all the parties should implement. When an error is found in this description, it’s better to fix it than to leave it. HTML4 provides an example of this. HTML4 says the default value for the “media” attribute is “screen”, even though it was long ago realised that this made no sense and the default should be “all”. The browsers all implement it as “all”. A snapshot with a known bug is not as useful as a living standard.
Related Questions
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