[Bug 13240] Consider replacing <time> with <data>

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=13240

--- Comment #70 from Philip Jägenstedt <philipj@opera.com> 2011-11-03 08:45:24 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #68)
> (In reply to comment #62)
> > (In reply to comment #61)
> > 
> > It states that "This element is intended as a way to encode modern dates and
> > times in a machine-readable way" and the first example is precisely about
> > "verbose unusable microformat garbage". It sounds like people are using it for
> > something else, in which case the spec should be fixed to reflect that if
> > <time> is brought back.
> 
> I don't see a problem with that spec. The way the element is being actually
> used is much more like the examples at the bottom. The examples in the spec
> aren't prioritised are they?

Of course not, I'm just pointing out that the main reasons that <time> exists
are not the reasons that people are using it for. To elaborate:

1. No browser has implemented the CSS localization stuff. (I suggested dropping
it in
http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2009-November/024106.html
but Hixie opted to keep it in
http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2010-July/027289.html)

2. People are barfing at the idea of using microformats or microdata and saying
that <data> is useless.

3. pubdate="" was added in http://html5.org/r/3116 specifically to enable the
conversion to an Atom feed. However, I'm virtually certain that no one has ever
used it for that purpose because (a) no one seems to have noticed or cared that
the conversion algorithm was removed and (b) when I tried implementing that
algorithm in January I found and filed the kinds of bugs that seem to indicate
that no one had done it before.

If <time> belong in the spec then it should also match what people use it for.
AFAICT, that is:

1. Script and styling hook, kind of like <header> or <aside>
2. Documentation purposes
3. Semantics as a goal in itself

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Received on Thursday, 3 November 2011 08:45:33 UTC