[Bug 11754] New: Should clearly indicate that Web authors don't need to bother to make their content polyglot if they don't know they have a use case

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=11754

           Summary: Should clearly indicate that Web authors don't need to
                    bother to make their content polyglot if they don't
                    know they have a use case
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML/XHTML Compatibility Authoring Guide (ed: Eliot
                    Graff)
        AssignedTo: eliotgra@microsoft.com
        ReportedBy: hsivonen@iki.fi
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org,
                    public-html@w3.org, eliotgra@microsoft.com


Authoring polyglot documents is harder than authoring either monoglot HTML5 or
monoglot XHTML5 documents. In particular, it is a lot harder than authoring
monoglot HTML5 documents. Thus, if Web author makes his/her documents polyglot
when there's not a real need to do so, the Web author ends up doing useless
hard works, which isn't nice.

Considering the history of XHTML advocacy pushing Web authors to try (and most
often fail) to make their text/html content XML-compatible without a good
reason, I think there's a real risk of history repeating and authors jumping
through hoops they don't need to jump through if "Polyglot Markup" is published
without better guidance about its applicability.

After all, if the W3C publishes something, readers will assume that the W3C is
endorsing whatever is described in the publication without reservation.

To avoid giving the appearance that the W3C advices Web authors in general to
write polyglot documents (which in the general case leads to extra work without
a return on the investment), please include text in the introduction that
communicates the idea that polyglot markup is a solution to abnormal needs and
if a Web author hasn't personally concluded that (s)he has use a case that is
best addressed by polyglot markup, the Web author is most likely best off using
monoglot HTML5 or XHTML5.

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Received on Friday, 14 January 2011 08:29:53 UTC