Re: Justification for the cite attribute on ins&del

just to be sure again to frame the discussion.

It is about the cite attribute
used on         ins and del elements.

example:

    <p>A Sheriff can employ
    <del cite="http://example.org/msg0002">3</del>
    <ins>5</ins> deputies.</p>


Henri Sivonen (11 oct. 2007 - 16:40) :
> http://www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/#cite3
>> The cite attribute may be used to specify a URI that explains the  
>> change. When that document is long, for instance the minutes of a  
>> meeting, authors are encouraged to include a fragment identifier  
>> pointing to the specific part of that document that discusses the  
>> change.
>>
>> If the cite attribute is present, it must be a URI (or IRI) that  
>> explains the change. User agents should allow users to follow such  
>> citation links.
> Currently, mainstream UAs don't interoperably fulfill the  
> requirement of the last sentence quoted above. Therefore, as far as  
> implementation goes, this counts as a new feature although the  
> language feature is roughly a decade old[1].

More than saying it is not used, I wonder what are the issues and why  
it *seems* not used. Paul Haine in the past developed a comment about  
[invisible information][3]. There are a few related questions

# some issues

* How many tools are using "del" and "ins" elements? (Really using in  
an authoring environment be a browser or authoring tool or CMS).
   For example, in the set of documents available online which  
contain ins and del, are there hints to identify those using a CMS or  
a particular product.

* What is the meaning of these constructs
   * del and ins with same cite values.
     <p>A Sheriff can employ
     <del cite="http://example.org/msg0002">3</del>
     <ins cite="http://example.org/msg0002">5</ins>
      deputies.</p>
   * del and ins with different cite values.
     <p>A Sheriff can employ with different
     <del cite="http://example.org/msg0002">3</del>
     <ins cite="http://example.org/msg0045">5</ins>
      deputies.</p>

# possible usage

* on the too geeky side.
   For example, I can imagine [cvsweb][2]
   using "ins" and "del" to show the differences
   and link to the cvslog message "SQL: New
   error code for failure to obtain a write lock." in
http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/html5/spec/Overview.html.diff? 
r1=1.252&r2=1.253&f=h
* A wiki could in the same way gives the differences and link to the  
change log messages.
   http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/IssueAltAttribute? 
action=diff&rev2=9&rev1=8


# implementations of "ins" and "del"

* Javascript Diff Algorithm by John Resig
   http://ejohn.org/projects/javascript-diff-algorithm/
   http://ejohn.org/files/jsdiff.js
* NucleusCMS
   http://pamgau.net/media/Sample/Nicetitle.html
   http://dev.nucleuscms.org/dev/phpXref/nav.html?skins/default/ 
nicetitle.js.source.html
   http://www.kryogenix.org/code/browser/nicetitle/
   http://www.kryogenix.org/code/browser/nicetitle/nicetitle.js
* Wordpress
   only <del datetime=""> in comments box
* history by Mark Pilgrim (compared the evolution of the content of a  
Web page, but didn't implement datetime and cite in the script.)
   http://diveintomark.org/projects/misc/history-20030717.tgz





# Ressources

[1]: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40-971218/struct/text.html#adef- 
cite-INS
[2]: http://www.freebsd.org/projects/cvsweb.html
[3]: http://unfortunatelypaul.com/2005/02/02/invisible-information/

-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager, QA Activity Lead
   QA Weblog - http://www.w3.org/QA/
      *** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Wednesday, 17 October 2007 05:14:09 UTC