RE: McCathieNevile-6

Hi Chaals,

Thanks for your mail.

>From your response, it sounds as though I've misunderstood the original comment. 

I took it to refer to the set of links associated with each section of a multifile HTML rendering of a W3C specification. The recent XHTML 2 WD is an example. Here is the list module page as an example.

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-list.html#s_listmodule

At the top of the page is a set of links for navigating to important parts of the document.

These don't appear in the single page version. 

Ok, so it sounds as though that is not what you meant, so I'm at a bit of a loss. Can you show an example of a current W3C specification that includes the link you'd like to see?

Best wishes, and thanks for persevering with us

Rhys

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles McCathieNevile [mailto:chaals@opera.com] 
Sent: 09 September 2006 14:00
To: Rhys.Lewis@volantis.com
Cc: public-diselect-editors@w3.org
Subject: Re: McCathieNevile-6

On Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:15:36 +0200, Rhys Lewis <Rhys.Lewis@volantis.com>  
wrote:

> Generator Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium) Hi Chaals,
>
> We' re just in the process of reviewing disposition of comments on the  
> first last call of content selection [1].
>
> We don' t appear ever to have responded to your sixth comment which  
> states:
>
> <snip>Navigating the specification document would have been easier with  
> at least a link element to its table of contents</snip>


> DIWG Response
> ------------------------
> DIWG has sympathy with this comment. We are, however, constrained, to  
> some degree, by the W3C tools that we have chosen to use to create the  
> specification. We will improve the navigation
> by preparing a version of the specification as a set of HTML files, in  
> addition to the single HTML file version. To this extent, we accept
> the comment.

Hi Rhys,

thanks for the response. First, I realise this is hardly a life or death  
issue. That said, this response is totaly unsatisfactory.

The link element is an important part of enabling browsers to help users.  
Insteadof having to guess how to get to various defined things (table of  
contents, index, etc), when this element is used correctly, browsers can  
provide a predictable consistent navigation mechanism which can be easily  
accessed.

Splitting the document into several parts doesn't resolve this problem  
unless you are going to use the link element in each of these parts - with  
the added information necessary to navigate among the pieces, of course.

If this is really a problem with W3C's tools, please ask them to fix those  
tools. This is a basic HTML element of long standing, and should be used  
properly at least by the people who specified it. Failing which, it is  
possible to add this in by hand editing when the document has been put in  
place but before publication.

cheers

Chaals

-- 
   Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software: Standards Group
   hablo español  -  je parle français  -  jeg lærer norsk
chaals@opera.com          Try Opera 9 now! http://opera.com

Received on Monday, 11 September 2006 07:09:55 UTC