Re: Splitting up the spec

I wrote:
>> I agree that a HTML consumer needs both parsing and error handing.

>> But a HTML producer needs neither.

Smylers asked:
>... Ian has already said that his intention is that style-sheets
> could be used to display only the parts relevant to particular
> audiences, such as producers.

> So long as a cut-down view such as this were made available,
> such that producers don't need to read anything extraneous,
> would you be satisfied (even though the means of editing that
> content happened to be as part of a larger document)?

In theory, yes.

Unfortunately, I think that treating them as a single document has
caused many people -- including Ian -- to see them as more
tightly linked than necessary.  There will also be some reluctance
to rely on a subset view of the spec, in case the subsetting was
done carelessly.  (The spec author would of course tend to see
the everything view.)  So I'm not sure if a stylesheet-only
solution would be strong enough separation in practice.

> And if so, do you think it is important that such audience-specific
> views are made available soon,

Yes.

I believe that a fair amount of feedback will not occur until people
see something small enough to read through more easily.  Saving
that for an afterthought before last call would be a mistake.

On a more positive note, doing the view separation soon would leave
more time to iron out the kinks, so that it would be more likely to be
sufficient even in practice.

-jJ

Received on Sunday, 23 November 2008 03:39:57 UTC