Can we honestly say this is any better than "this site will only display correctly on IE"? Even if they're using open standards, it just doesn't seem right to be incompatible with 90% of browsers. Is there any practical value of these demonstrations of CSS prowess to HN?
IE will at some point in the future catch up. IE 10 or 11 will probably be able to render this example correctly. Those sites that only works with IE depends on IE-quirkiness (aka bugs) which never will be implemented in any other browser.
So IE will catch up to this. Other browsers would never "catch up" to IE's weirdness. And IE never lead the direction of html development. WebKit does (e.g. transitions, 2D and 3D transformations, css animations).
I use these examples to show my customers that it is good to give users with advanced browsers a nicer design than what is possible (easy) with IE 6. That they should leave the idea that a website should look exactly the same in all browsers. That a sprinkle of css can improve a design in FF and WebKit, but would take huge amount of pngs in IE 6. Much more value for their money because adding a bit of css is much faster than fighting IE6.
It won't. The demo uses -webkit-gradient, -webkit-box-shadow, -webkit-border-radius, -webkit-box-reflect, -webkit-transform, and -webkit-animation. Of course, it might be able to render it correctly when the "-webkit-" prefix is removed. But for now, demos like this are necessarily browser-specific.
div#id { filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(sizingMethod='auto expand', M11=1.532, M12=-1.286, M21=1.286, M22=1.532); }
WebKit extension:
div#id { transform: rotate(40deg) scale(2.0); }
I think WebKit has the better candidate for a cross-platform standard......
Unless some people push things forward they will forever stay the same. We don't all have to move in lock-step, that kind of thinking leads to watered down systems and is a recipe for stagnation.
There's also graceful degradation and progressive enhancement, where you can serve the best supported content to each client based on their capabilities. So you can use the new shiny stuff if supported but nobody is left out in the cold entirely. HTML5 video is a good example of this.
One last point. Other browser devs may see these demos and think "hey that's cool! we should be able to do that too", leading to quicker uptake of new standards.
It seems like that sort of stuff where you know it's already supported begs some action.
I think this kind of thing is like a light on the horizon for web designers. It lets us know that some of the things we wish we could do now are at least going to be feasible someday...