Re: Extensibility strategies

Henri Sivonen wrote on 08/05/2008 08:03:01 AM:
>
> On Aug 5, 2008, at 14:29, Sam Ruby wrote:
> > Henri Sivonen <hsivonen@iki.fi> wrote on 08/05/2008 06:39:58 AM:
> > > Or is this thread really about establishing a mechanism that
> > involves
> > > binding a prefix to a URI using reserved attributes starting with
> > > "xmlns:" and then using the prefix in front of local names separated
> > > by a colon?
> >
> > There are some advantages to such an approach, and some
> > disadvantages.  Some of the advantages include working with the DOM
> > API.  Some of the disadvantages include usability issues that you
> > have referred to.  Other solutions which do not involve attributes
> > starting with "xmlns:" can be found which map onto the DOM API.
> > There may be ways to mitigate the usuability issus with solutions
> > which involve colons in element names.
>
> I'd rather not recap the whole ARIA discussion, since I've had that
> discussion way too many times. However, compatibility with the DOM is
> the major *dis*advantage of *any* scheme that puts a colon in element
> or attribute names, since the colon is already special in XML and IE.
>
> With a colon in names, you can't have DOM consistency with all of
> these at the same time:
>   * text/html in existing shipped versions of Firefox, Safari and Opera.
>   * text/html in existing shipped versions of IE.
>   * text/html in future HTML5-supporting browsers.
>   * application/xhtml+xml in existing shipped versions of Firefox,
> Safari and Opera.

What you describe was certainly a factor in the ARIA discussions.

But, independent of whether a colon in element and attribute names is a
good idea or not, isn't it true that all HTML5 compliant browsers will
produce the same DOM for such elements and attributes?  Doesn't the
"commented out" SVG proposal define attributes that contain a colon?  Isn't
it true that the <aside> element present in HTML5 produces different DOMs
with existing shipped versions of Firefox, Safari, Opera, and IE?

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



- Sam Ruby