- From: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:24:34 +0000 (UTC)
- To: public-html@w3.org
Recently, people have asked me for a list of sections that could be spun off from HTML5 into their own specs, with other editors, to lighten the workload for taking HTML5 to REC. This is the list of sections that could be spun off from the HTML5 spec as it stands today, ordered in descending effort-to-benefit ratio (i.e. the more helpful it would be to spin off the section, the earlier it is in the list; the lower it is in the list, the more it would delay the overall effort). The higher something is in this list, the most helpful it would be for speeding up the process. The time estimates are intended to be accurate (neither conservative nor optimistic) and assume a competent and experienced editor and no unusually large unforseen problems. Time for forging relationships with browser vendors, setting up the infrastructure to edit a spec and track comments, and getting up to speed with the knowledge needed is not taken into account as it depends on who is the editor. In all cases, editors will also need to beable to perform or commission studies using techniques such as instrumenting Web browsers and scanning Web content. For background on what sections we've tried to split out before, and what basic skills and abilities an editor really should aspire to have in addition to those listed below, please see this e-mail from last month: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2008Sep/0004.html 1. HTML5 Rendering and UA behavior Scope: user agent conformance requirements for obsolete elements, attributes, and DOM APIs; recommended rendering dimensions and basic user interface conventions of form controls; recommended default rendering rules and default style sheet for HTML. Skills and knowledge needed: JS, DOM, HTML, CSS, reverse-engineering browsers, researching authoring trends. Access to multiple browsers necessary, multiple platforms a plus. Estimated workload: - 6 months at 40h/week researching, reverse engineering and specifying - 4 months at 40h/week responding to immediate feedback - 12 months at 10h/week responding to further feedback - 24 months at 5h/week responding to further feedback 2. Interaction events Scope: defining the relationship between user interaction (clicks, mouse movements, key presses, etc) and DOM2 Events, hit testing, and documenting any special behavior relating to HTML features. Skills and knowledge needed: JS, DOM, HTML, reverse-engineering browsers. Access to multiple browsers and platforms necessary. Estimated workload: - 6 months at 40h/week researching, reverse engineering and specifying - 4 months at 20h/week responding to immediate feedback - 12 months at 5h/week responding to further feedback - 24 months at 1h/week responding to further feedback 3. 3D Canvas Scope: defining a new API for 3D graphics. Skills and knowledge needed: 3D graphics, JS, DOM, HTML (in particular, experience with the 2D canvas API), API design, reverse-engineering browsers. Access to multiple browsers a plus. Estimated workload: - 3 months at 20h/week researching and working with browser vendors and Web authors to establish requirements, needs, and goals - 2 months at 40h/week to design and specify a first draft API - 6 months at 20h/week to respond to feedback and work with browser vendors and Web authors to update proposed API - 12 months at 5h/week to test and reverse-engineer implementations and work with browser vendors to update the implementations and the spec accordingly - 24 months at 2h/week responding to further feedback 4. UndoManager Scope: defining the undo/redo API for Web applications (including contentEditable editors). Skills and knowledge needed: JS, DOM, HTML, API design, reverse-engineering browsers. Access to multiple browsers a plus. Estimated workload: - 3 months at 40h/week researching, reverse engineering and specifying - 2 months at 5h/week responding to immediate feedback - 5 months at 1h/week responding to further feedback - 12 months at 5h/week to test and reverse-engineer implementations and work with browser vendors to update the implementations and the spec accordingly - 24 months at 1h/week responding to further feedback 5. Stylesheet DOM Scope: specifying the alternative stylesheet API. Skills and knowledge needed: CSS, HTML, JS, DOM, API design, reverse-engineering browsers. Access to multiple browsers necessary. Estimated workload: - 1 month at 40h/week researching, reverse engineering, designing, and specifying - 1 month at 5h/week responding to immediate feedback - 24 months at 1h/week responding to further feedback 6. URL Scope: defining error handling for URLs, handling of base URLs, and resolving URLs to base URLs. Updating the URI and IRI specifications to reflect actual implementations. Skills and knowledge needed: IRI, HTML, JS, DOM, reverse-engineering browsers. Access to multiple browsers necessary. Estimated workload: - 1-6 months at 40h/week researching, reverse engineering, designing, and specifying, depending on the approach taken - 1-6 month at 5h/week responding to immediate feedback - 24 months at 1h/week responding to further feedback 7. Common DOM interfaces Scope: HTMLCollection, DOMTokenList, DOMStringMap, and related definitions. Skills and knowledge needed: DOM, JS, HTML, reverse-engineering browsers, API design. Access to multiple browsers necessary. Estimated workload: - 2 months at 30h/week researching, reverse engineering, designing, and specifying - 12 months 5h/week coordinating with other specs and responding to feedback - 24 months 1h/week responding to further feedback 8. Content-Type handling and content sniffing Scope: Defining the various ways that browsers are to handle bogus or potentially incorrect Content-Type values, how to parse Content-Type values (including error handling), how to do content sniffing, etc. Skills and knowledge needed: HTTP, MIME, HTML, character encodings, good understanding of a variety of common binary and text formats used on the Web, MIME, reverse-engineering browsers. Access to multiple browsers and platforms necessary. Estimated workload: - 1 month at 40h/week integrating existing text - 3 months at 20h/week researching, reverse engineering, soliciting feedback, and responding to feedback - 6 months at 10h/week responding to feedback - 24 months at 2h/week responding to further feedback 9. 2D Canvas Scope: correcting errors and adding new features to the 2D graphics API. Splitting this out would probably slow down HTML5 itself by a few weeks. Skills and knowledge needed: 2D graphics, JS, DOM, HTML (in particular, experience with the 2D canvas API), API design, reverse-engineering browsers. Access to multiple browsers and platforms necessary. Ability to tactfully say "no" a lot a definite plus. Estimated workload: - 24 months at 20h/week researching, reverse engineering, designing, specifying, and responding to feedback - 24 months at 2h/week responding to further feedback 10. Platform Core Scope: browsing contexts, event loops, navigation, fetching, origin, scripting contexts, the Window object, etc. Splitting this out of HTML5 would probably delay HTML5 by up to a year, and would introduce a dependency from HTML5 to this spec. Skills and knowledge needed: DOM, JS, HTML, SVG, API design, reverse-engineering browsers. Access to multiple browsers and platforms necessary. Estimated workload: - 4 months at 40h/week extracting existing text from HTML5 - 12 months at 40h/week reverse-engineering and specifying - 12 months at 40h/week responding to feedback - 24 months at 5h/week responding to feedback If anybody wants to volunteer for one of these sections, please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you get set up. Cheers, -- Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,. Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
Received on Monday, 27 October 2008 17:25:15 UTC