Re: 3.6. The root element

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:34:46 +0200, Ben Boyle <benjamins.boyle@gmail.com>  
wrote:
> Right... thanks Anne and Lachlan
>
> Is the "null namespace" note really relevant to HTML? Does HTML even
> have a  concept of namespaces? Why make this note?

Once HTML is parsed it does. (The parsing algorithm creates a  
(namespace-aware) DOM.) The note is made to inform authors who know how  
HTML parsing works and know that xmlns is placed in a namespace in XML  
that for HTML documents it is indeed a bit strange to declare such an  
attribute (although it is legal to make conversion of existing content  
easier).


> I hope it's becoming clear how confusing these implementation
> specifics will be for authors, how they get in the way of
> understanding the markup rules. I appreciate they all have a purpose,
> but I'd rather those details were stuffed in appendices where I'd only
> encounter them if I really dug into details.

Specifications are meant to cover the nasty little details. If a  
specification were just an authoring guide it wouldn't be of much use to  
picky authors who'd like to know how things are actually working. You'd  
just have another HTML 4.


> [...]


-- 
Anne van Kesteren
<http://annevankesteren.nl/>
<http://www.opera.com/>

Received on Monday, 30 July 2007 13:40:55 UTC