Re: Javascript URI scheme (ACTION-46)

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008, Julian Reschke wrote:
> 
> 1) The latest draft actually seems to be
> <http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hoehrmann-javascript-scheme-00>

The following URI will apparently (according to Bjoern) always point to 
the latest version:

   http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-hoehrmann-javascript-scheme


> 2) HTML5 
> (<http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080122/#javascript-protocol>) 
> currently refers to an external document for the definition of the 
> scheme; but as the references section is missing (*), it's hard to tell 
> what it tries to refer to.

The actual reference information is in a comment in the source:

<!--
JSURI: http://ietfreport.isoc.org/all-ids/draft-hoehrmann-javascript-scheme-00.txt and
       http://www.websitedev.de/ietf/draft-hoehrmann-javascript-scheme-00.txt should be as stable as it gets,
       http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-hoehrmann-javascript-scheme/ for the latest version
-->


> (*) I think it's unwise to delay writing down proper references any 
> longer...

The HTML5 spec references several dozen other specs, each of which is 
updated at least once a year, sometimes more. If I have a references 
section, people will point out when it goes out of date, and I end up 
having to make at least one update to the spec every two weeks. Given that 
the spec won't be complete for years, this would be an inordinate amount 
of wasted effort on the part of reviewers and myself.

90% of the references are obvious, 90% of the rest are not important to 
the understanding of the spec. The cost of leaving the 1% that remains 
ambigious is less than the cost of having a references section.

When in doubt, check the markup -- the less obvious references usually 
have a note in the source listing the likely places that the reference 
will point to.

Cheers,
-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Friday, 25 January 2008 09:54:59 UTC