[Bug 8365] Remove the Web Browsers Section 6

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=8365





--- Comment #18 from Shelley Powers <shelleyp@burningbird.net>  2009-11-25 14:27:28 ---
(In reply to comment #15)
> ePub is irrelevant to the question of removing stuff from the spec. The HTML WG
> is creating a spec for the Web. Parties who don't work on Web stuff are free to
> lower their R&D costs by reusing Web specs in non-Web contexts (e.g. offline
> browserless ebook readers). However, if a non-Web usage doesn't need something,
> it's no reason to remove that piece from a Web spec.
> 
> (I'd also argue that the WG shouldn't add stuff in order to cater to non-Web
> use cases.)
> 
> I think bugs of this flavor should be WONTFIXed, because they harm the goal of
> having the Open Web Platform well specified. (Having the stuff in *a* spec is
> more important than having the specs split according to anyone's particular
> spec-aesthetic preferences, IMO.)
> 

I use ePub as a demonstration of what can happen when a language is well
designed. 

XHTML can not only can be used for web pages, it can also be used to create a
entirely new version of book. This ability to expand beyond a basic set of
parameters demonstrates what happens when you don't over-specify when creating
a specification, and when you keep the content of the specification tightly
focused on what it is supposed to be: HTML, XHTML, and the DOM.

Rather than celebrate how the simplicity and elegance of XHTML 1.1 is
vindicated in such use, you're seeing it as some lazy lack of R & D. That's not
forward thinking because the ePub can be used for books accessed via the web,
like I do when I check out my books from the library. Or if not ePub, some
other use, which could occur over the web. 

Think of the specification in the context of a application rather than a spec.
When you program, you modularize the application as much as possible. You do
this because you want to reuse whatever bits can be reusable. You also keep
your code tightly focused, to avoid scope creep. I imagine you've probably had
a thing or two to say about non-programmers in the past who have asked for the
kitchen sink in whatever application. And you've probably had to remind them
that what they're asking for is out of scope.

Just because HTML5 is a specification, not an application, doesn't mean we
throw all of the good practices we've learned as technologist out the window.
And the most critical good practice we're taught in college in comp-sci, is to
avoid scope creep. To keep our creations clean, and focused.


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Received on Wednesday, 25 November 2009 14:27:31 UTC