I was just reviewing the list of updates made to Safari 2.0.1 and was shocked to see the amount of proprietary extensions that Safari has implemented. I’m a little mixed in my feelings about this. Afterall, if it weren’t for recreating proprietary functionality, we wouldn’t have the wonderful XMLHttp object in every browser. It also seems that copying proprietary Mozilla functionality is much more socially acceptable than copying IE functionality…well, Safari has done both. Check out this list of fixes and additions:

• Implemented showModalDialog() from IE.
• Implemented document.elementFromPoint() from IE.
• Fixed outerHTML to work with <img/> (outerHTML is from IE).
• Implemented DOMParser from Mozilla.

So what about it? Is it okay to recreate proprietary functionality and create a pseudo-standard in doing so?

Disclaimer: Any viewpoints and opinions expressed in this article are those of Nicholas C. Zakas and do not, in any way, reflect those of my employer, my colleagues, Wrox Publishing, O'Reilly Publishing, or anyone else. I speak only for myself, not for them.