[Bug 18549] New: Add era attribute to time element

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=18549

           Summary: Add era attribute to time element
           Product: HTML.next
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: default
        AssignedTo: dave.null@w3.org
        ReportedBy: ian@iandevlin.com
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: plh@w3.org, mike@w3.org


Note: this is taken from a change proposal that was made to the W3C for HTML5
(http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/User:Idevlin/add_era_attribute_to_time_element).

Enhance the HTML time element to allow dates before the Common Era by adding an
'era' attribute.

There is currenly no way to specify historical dates before the Common Era with
the <time> element, and even the proposal linked to above doesn't allow this.
The addition of an 'era' attribute would accomodate this. 

Suggestion:
- Add an 'era' attribute to the HTML time element

- This attribute can have one of two values: 'ce' (common era) or 'bce' (before
common era)

- If the 'era' attribute is not present, the default value is 'ce' 

Effects:
- The addition of this attribute would allow those (e.g. historians and
archaeologists) who wish to specify historic dates in the past. The abilility
to do so would increase the take-up of the time element, especially in academic
circles where dates before the Common Era are commonplace, as it would remove
the issue of "not supporting dates before the Common Era" (which has been
identified in various places
(http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2009/html-5-politics-and-me/) and
(http://html5doctor.com/the-time-element/)

- This will not lead to a "year zero" issue as the proposed use of the (The
Dionysian "Common Era"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_era#Dionysian_.22Common_Era.22), which
doesn't have a "year 0" eliminates that possibility

- The existing specification of the time element and the proposal mentioned
above will not need to be changed, as the value of an 'era' attribute simply
indicates which era the date refers to

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Received on Monday, 13 August 2012 17:59:24 UTC