Re: Cleaning House

Lee Roberts wrote:

> I don't post much, but I do have concerns.
> 
> 1.  How long do we need to continue to support deprecated tags?  HTML4
> attempted to clean house by deprecating tags in lieu of CSS abilities.  Now,
> eleven or so years later we're finally attempting to create a new standard,
> but seems we're too concerned with how browser developers will handle
> HTML4.x and XHTML1.x pages.  
> 
> HTML5 should require cleaner standards.  It should be one standard and not a
> conglomerate or hodgepodge mess.  It should be easy for the novice Web
> designer to understand, unlike previous standards.  The language used should
> be easy for ninth graders to understand - no one should need a Ph. D. or
> degree in computer programming/technologies.

[long snip]

> 4.  Can't we start by cleaning up the HTML4.x and XHTML1.x standards?  After
> we clean that up, I think we could then discuss new elements such as term,
> canvas, and others.

Hear hear.  But to be honest, I wouldn't even include refining XHTML1
in the set of base tasks : HTML 4.01 Strict represents the best we have
to date -- take it as the basis, throw out any legacy elements that
/should/ already have disappeared, then consider what (if any) new
elements /need/ to be added.

Finally (and this is both the crux and the hard part), work out a clean
mechanism whereby the base language can be extended to allow pure semantic
markup of /any/ discipline, without extending the base language (other
than through the addition of whatever elements are necessary to support
dynamic language extension).  And do so in a way that is compatible with
the closing sentence of your second paragraph : the extensibility mechanism
should be sufficiently simple that the creation of an HTML dialect is
within the abilities of any professional web author, and achievable even
by the better non-professionals.

Philip Taylor

Received on Wednesday, 2 May 2007 17:15:40 UTC