Re: Some thoughts on an extensible hypertext markup language

What use would there be in a minimal version of XHTML?

Toby A Inkster wrote:

>
>Interestingly, I also looked at a minimal XHTML a couple of months ago, 
>although my approach is somewhat different. My proposition is:
>
>1. Create a "Maximal XHTML" markup language, which should be well-formed 
>XML. Regular XHTML should be a subset opf Maximal XHTML. Such a markup 
>language would also include additional semantic elements that were 
>rejected from XHTML as being too specific and possibly one or two 
>presentational elements. It could possibly allow SVG, MathML, etc to 
>come into play as well.
>
>2. Create a "Minimal XHTML" language, a proper subset of XHTML, so that 
>any valid Minimal XHTML document is a valid XHTML document. Minimal 
>XHTML would consist entirely of the following elements and listed 
>attributes. No other attributes or elements would be permissable. Some 
>attributes are limited in the values they can take, as per below.
>
><html>
>  dir
>
><head>
>
><title>
>
><link>
>  rel=next,prev,parent,start,end,contents,index,appendix,alternate
>  href
>
><meta>
>  name
>  scheme
>
><body>
>
><section>
>  id
>  class=introduction,conclusion,chapter,subchapter,example
>
><h>
>
><p>
>  id
>
><quote>
>  cite
>
><em>
>
><code>
>
><address>
>
><abbr>
>        <l>
>        <a>
>  href
>  type
>
><ol>,<ul>
>  id
>
><li>
>  id
>  href
>
><table>
>  summary
>
><thead>
>
><tr>
>
><th>
>   colspan,rowspan
>   for
>   abbr
>
><tbody>
>
><td>
>  colspan,rowspan
>
><tfoot>
>
><tr>
>
><td>
>  colspan,rowspan
>
>xml:lang and title can be used for any element where it is allowed in 
>XHTML.
>
>Note that minimal XHTML contains no presentational elements, including 
>no opportunity to specify a style sheet (adding one in by PIs would be 
>not allowed). Presentation is entirely down to the user.
>
>It contains a rich linking structure through <link> -- the encouraged 
>machanism for navigational linking -- and <a>.
>
>Note also that there is no method of embedding images. If an image must 
>be referenced, you must just link to it, using <a> or <link>.
>
>Min-XHTML would be easy to implement by user agents as there is no 
>styling, no scripting, no embedding and very few elements. It would be 
>accessible because there is very little you can do to make a min-XHTML 
>document inaccessible!
>
>  
>

Received on Friday, 16 May 2003 19:21:55 UTC