It Is Impossible to Build a Browser

The total word count of the W3C specification catalogue is 114 million words at the time of writing. If you added the combined word counts of the C11, C++17, UEFI, USB 3.2, and POSIX specifications, all 8,754 published RFCs, and the combined word counts of everything on Wikipedia’s list of longest novels, you would be 12 million words short of the W3C specifications.² I conclude that it is impossible to build a new web browser. The complexity of the web is obscene. The creation of a new web browser would be comparable in effort to the Apollo program or the Manhattan project. It is impossible to: • Implement the web correctly • Implement the web securely • Implement the web at all

A screenshot of a technical passage explains that the W3C specifications are so enormous that even adding major programming standards, thousands of RFCs, and Wikipedia’s longest novels would still fall short. It jokingly concludes that building a new web browser is impossible, comparing the effort to the Apollo program or the Manhattan Project, and escalates the punchline by saying the web cannot be implemented correctly, securely, or at all. This is shared as a reaction to the absurd complexity and endless edge cases of web development. EN: A screenshot of a technical passage explains that the W3C specifications are so enormous that even adding major programming standards, thousands of RFCs, and Wikipedia’s longest novels would still fall short. It jokingly concludes that building a new web browser is impossible, comparing the effort to the Apollo program or the Manhattan Project, and escalates the punchline by saying the web cannot be implemented correctly, securely, or at all. This is shared as a reaction to the absurd complexity and endless edge cases of web development.

• @ithueti / 10414 2023-09-24
• @rzeczyzabawne / 12267 2023-09-24