RE: naming custom/extended tags

> > XML has a feature (XML Namespaces -
> > http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names) that eliminates the problem.
> 
> It's a bogosity, and it doesn't eliminate the problem.

It may be a bogosity--but it does eliminate the problem.  If you use
XML namespaces, you won't have naming conflicts.

> > You've probably heard:  the gurus are now recommending that you use
> > XHTML rather than HTML anyway.
> 
> The gurus?  All I see is W3C advocacy.

The HTML WG recommends XHTML over HTML4.  I think "the gurus" aptly
describes the WG responsible for HTML and its ongoing development.

The folks that developed WML probably advocate the WAP Forum, too,
but that doesn't mean they aren't the WML gurus.

> > If you just can't do XML, for whatever reason, then you're stuck
> > with hacking traditional HTML (or "Tag Soup" is it is called in
> > this venue.) The best thing you can do is pick a prefix and stick
> > to it.  The prefix should be a few letters (or whatever) followed
> > by a colon or hyphen.
> 
> Good advice.  But avoid the colon.  It's "reserved for namespace
> experiments".  Emphasis on 'experiments' optional but advisable:)

In XML it is.  In Tag Soup, anything goes, especially since (I speculate)
extensions are usually implemented by modifying a nonstandard Tag Soup
parser in decidedly nonstandard ways.


>     htign -  with one of two values (htign|empty): to indicate whether
>              and how the content is treatable in fallback HTML
>              fashion. The default here is non-assertion, which means
>              that the content is treatable regularly.

Some such convention is a good idea, although I'm not sure I like
yours.  An <alt> element, and an html:alt="" attribute for short,
might cover the same ground better.

-- 
Jason Orendorff

Received on Saturday, 12 February 2000 18:37:43 UTC