“handheld” Media Type, RIP?

Published on Jun 30, 2009, filed under development, css. (Share this post, e.g. on Mastodon or on Bluesky.)

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Website authors don’t use handheld as it’s barely supported; mobile browser vendors don’t support handheld because it’s barely used.

This is kind of the situation I think we’re facing—please prove me otherwise—, and it’s a problem. CSS’s handheld media type would be valuable to tailor content and services to mobile devices. The catch-22 we’re dealing with instead means two things:

• Media types, with the exception of print, could become useless. (That’s not including media features, however.)

• We may come to depend on user agents so smart (think content scaling) and connections so fast and affordable that site owners don’t have to offer alternative, mobile-optimized access to their services.

The CSS Working Group may disagree with my thinking but I like the idea that vendors meet consumer needs to make the second point a reality: providing us with smart software and reasonable prices to avoid a mess caused by… yes, who.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a senior engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day and companies you’ve never heard of, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and perspectives. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)