- From: Shelley Powers <shelley.just@gmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 16:12:30 -0600
- To: Laura Carlson <laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com>
- Cc: HTML WG <public-html@w3.org>
On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Laura Carlson <laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Shelley, > >> True, people will want to use any element in any way, but that doesn't >> mean we have to codify such usage. > > This all seems to go back to the "Pave The Cowpaths" Design Principle > [1], which has been argued explicitly and implicitly for over two and > a half years in many discussions. I've given up on cowpaths. For the last ten years, HTML has told page authors to use summary on tables, and definition lists (dl) for dialogs, that dt is definition term, and dd is definition description. Now, suddenly, seemingly, we've shot the cows. No one wants to keep bad practices, like using tables for layout. But too many of the changes seem arbitrary, and based on opinion and hearsay. > > The HTML 5 design principles never achieved consensus and here we are, > trying to reach Last Call. HTML5 principles are a “work in progress” > [2]. > > There is no meeting of the minds on the basic principles at this late > date. So it is difficult to agree on specifics. We keep having the > same types of circular debates here [3] [4] and elsewhere [5] [6]. > At least the figure discussion is sparkly new. Well, kind of. It's a new path for an old story. What's happening now is to be expected. The odd thing about work that impacts on many different groups of people, is that at some point you have to work towards general agreement with enough of the community to give credence to what you create. If you don't sooner, you will have to later. And the later you wait, the more contentious the issues, the larger the disagreements, the wider the chasms between groups. Interesting the discussion in the accessibility growth. Thanks for pointing it out here. I don't always keep up with the ally group's emails. > Best Regards, > Laura Regards Shelley > [1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007May/thread.html#msg940 > [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/html-design-principles/#sotd > [3] http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=8404 > [4] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Dec/thread.html#msg5 > [5] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2009Dec/0002.html > [6] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2009Dec/0003.html > -- > Laura L. Carlson >
Received on Tuesday, 1 December 2009 22:13:05 UTC