Re: What is a "state"?

On Jun 15, 2007, at 04:11, Ben Boyle wrote:

> If so... The concept of default values goes way back into DTDs (and I
> suspect SGML). It's pretty standard practice to define defaults when
> defining a language I think. It's expected.

HTML5 does not do SGML-style attribute defaulting because real  
browsers don't do it. That is, if you examine the DOM with the DOM  
Core methods, you don't get spec-defined default value when an  
attribute is absent or has an unrecognized value.

The default state says what state the UA is required to assume when  
the attribute is absent or has an unrecognized value. This does not  
change the value in the DOM.

It has to be this way for compatibility with real-world implementations.

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen@iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/

Received on Friday, 15 June 2007 07:05:43 UTC