Re: HTML 5 and Distributed Extensibility

Asbjørn Ulsberg wrote:
> Peter Krantz wrote:
>> What is the purpose of extending HTML 5 with custom elements?
> 
> The exact same as extending XHTML with custom elements.

Describing another way to achieve the result doesn't explain what the 
purpose is.  Adding custom elements to XHTML is just something that 
comes for free with XML and namespaces, not necessarily something that 
actually solves any problems that are relevant to (X)HTML.

>> Can it be solved with RDFa which is on the agenda for
>> inclusion in HTML 5 or is there a need for both?

No, RDFa doesn't actually solve anything.  It's an over-engineered, 
ivory tower spec that was developed in the hope that some "killer app" 
would eventually come along in the future to save it.  That's backwards! 
  Solutions should be developed to solve real problems in existing 
applications, not theoretical problems in hypothetical applications.

In fact, it seems like applications (beyond theoretical apps like 
"semantic extractors" which are of little practical benefit by 
themselves) were hardly considered during the initial development of 
"Semantic Web" technologies.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/

Received on Wednesday, 26 September 2007 12:39:18 UTC