Re: minutes for HTML WG f2f, 2011-11-04, part 1

On 06/11/2011, at 8:46 AM, Peter Winnberg wrote:
> The problem that I have with the data element is that I have not seen
> anyone explain is why the data element would be a superior solution to
> say:
> 
> <span value="machine-readable data here">Data here</span>
> 
> Why is the data element needed when it seems to have the same
> semantics as span? If I see some convincing examples of why this is
> needed I might redraw my objections to it. Otherwise yes, it is likely
> that I would do a counter proposal.
> 

It's the difference between asking what it means to have an index of all <span> on a page over what it means to have an index of all <data> on a page.

You can turn <span> into a data container, but it will inherit a lot of meaningless data.

> The way I see it, only a attribute is needed to hold the
> machine-readable data, and this attribute could perhaps be used on
> other elements as well (time?). If something like that would be done
> instead, and not add a new element and just an attribute, there are of
> course other things to consider, what should that attribute be named,
> and how can it be specified so that microdata/microformats/RDFa could
> take advantage of it.
> 

Is the attribute the value, type and identifier of the data?

cam

Received on Monday, 7 November 2011 19:02:02 UTC