Re: Choosing name for XML serialization (Was: Re: HTML5 differences from HTML4 editor's draft (XHTML5 and XHTML2))

On Jun 22, 2007, at 12:55 AM, Jirka Kosek wrote:

> Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
>
>> Incidentally, the XHTML2 WG keeps saying that they decided long  
>> ago to
>> reuse the XHTML1 namespace, but the latest Editor's Draft I could  
>> find,
>> from April 2007, still has a namespace that is different from XHTML1.
>> Maybe they have made an internal change since then. I think the
>> namespace is a bigger deal than the name of the XML serlaization.
>
> Indeed. If both groups are going to use the same namespace, there  
> should
> be a way how to distinguish XHTML2 from XML serialization of HTML5.
> XHTML2 provides version attribute for this purpose:
>
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-xhtml2/2007Jun/0026.html
>
> Although I would personally like both languages in a separate
> namespaces, it is unlikely to happen as both groups wants to somewhat
> remain continuation and compatibility with XHTML1.
>
> In this case both languages should use the same mechanism for
> distinguishing versions, ie. version attribute.

I don't think a version attribute would help. In browser-hosted  
implementations, DOM interfaces and default presentation are based  
solely on the namespace and tag name, and are not affected by  
attributes on the root element. I think this is generally true of non- 
browser implementations as well. Doing otherwise would be rather  
problematic.

So if XHTML2 and XHTML5 use the same namespace, then it will be  
unworkable to implement both in the same browser. Of course, XHTML2  
would have this problem even with respect to XHTML1, so if they reuse  
the XHTML1 namespace that would be a showstopper for their spec  
getting implemented by XHTML1 UAs.

Notwistanding the uselessness of a version attribute for this  
purpose, since XHTML2 requires version="2", then lack of that can  
indicate XHTML5, if we decide to go that route.

Regards,
Maciej

Received on Friday, 22 June 2007 08:37:00 UTC