Re: Placing elements in the HTML namespace

James Graham wrote on 01/15/2009 04:20:49 AM:
>
> The requirement that UAs place all HTML elements in the HTML namespace
> does not make sense for all classes of UA. For html5lib I plan to make
> it optional whether HTML elements are assigned to the HTML namespace so
> that people using APIs that have a significant namespace tax do not have
> to pay that tax in the common case.
>
> (I also think the reasoning in the spec about "easing the transition to
> XHTML" is spurious because it implies such a transition is likely. It
> would be better to invoke the DOM consistency principle here)

I think an argument could be made without an appeal to XHTML.

HTML5 parsing is defined in terms of the DOM produced.

If you take a simple HTML page (without xmlns marker attributes), and parse
it by the Gecko, Presto, or WebKit layout engines's parsers, what namespace
are the DOM elements produced in?

To me, DOM consistency would argue that html5lib should do likewise.

Providing an option to turn this behavior off (with the option defaulting
to false) is not something I would see as a problem.

- Sam Ruby