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

On Thu, 27 Aug 2009, Shawn Medero wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Michael(tm) Smith<mike@w3.org> wrote:
> > Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>, 2009-08-26 02:28 +0000:
> >
> >> On Tue, 25 Aug 2009, Roy T. Fielding wrote:
> >> > If we actually defined each element and each attribute in the way 
> >> > that HTML4 does *and* define its operational behavior for the DOM 
> >> > then the specification would satisfy all implementations.
> >>
> >> I don't know what it means to "define" an element if that is not to 
> >> define its operational behaviour.
> >
> > It means defining what the element represents.
> 
> Indeed. There's a noticeable difference between:
> 
> http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/text-level-semantics.html#the-a-element
> 
> or even the newly minted:
> 
> http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec-author-view/text-level-semantics.html#the-a-element
> 
> and having to follow all the internal references... versus the rather 
> pleasing "at a glance" view you get from Mike's version
> 
> http://dev.w3.org/html5/markup/a.html#a
> 
> I know all the info I want is in the HTML 5 spec but sometimes I need to 
> send a pointer to someone who isn't a spec-weenie and the HTML 5: The 
> Markup Language view is often "good enough" for someone less interested 
> in the nuances of say "The activation behavior of a elements". I'm not 
> sure the new spec-author-view is quite right... but it is moving us 
> closer.

I completely agree that if you're just looking for tutorial-level 
information, the HTML5 spec isn't appropriate. It's not trying to be 
friendly, it's trying to be normatively precise. I don't think the two are 
compatible goals.

If we want tutorial-level information, then Lachlan's document and Mike's 
document, as non-normative adjuncts to the spec, do a far better job than 
the spec ever could while remaining precise.

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

Received on Thursday, 27 August 2009 19:40:51 UTC