Re: ISSUE-53: mediatypereg - suggest closing on 2009-09-03

Thanks Roy, this was much more specific in identifying what you think  
is missing.

On Aug 25, 2009, at 4:21 PM, Roy T. Fielding wrote:

>
> HTML5 draft doesn't define what the attribute means -- it only says
> it once had a role similar to id.

So you think it should say it's for naming link targets? (Or at least  
that this is one purpose, since <a name> causes additional behavior in  
various DOM APIs?)

> It doesn't specify that its value must be a unique anchor name,  
> which is a significant statement for
> link checking software that verifies such things as destinations.

The lack of uniqueness requirement seems like a specific and  
actionable problem. Ian, is there any reason HTML5 drops this HTML4.01  
requirement?

> It doesn't specify that it shares the same name space as the id
> attributes, which again is significant for both link checkers
> and content management.

Seems to me something this would need to be stated to make the  
uniqueness requirement well-defined. Although, "shares the same  
namespace" seems overbroad and inaccurate - it shares the same  
namespace for purposes of fragment ID resolution, but not for, say,  
getElementById().

>  Moreover, what it does say about the
> subject is placed far away from where a reader would be expected
> to look up a definition for this funky "name" attribute they
> happened to see on an anchor in some "text/html".

This is a valid concern, but I think the location of the definition is  
a separate issue from whether there is a sufficient definition at all.

Regards,
Maciej

Received on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 23:31:13 UTC