Re: Comments on "one vocabulary, two serializations"

On Jul 25, 2009, at 9:46 PM, Larry Masinter wrote:

> # XHTML must be served with an XML MIME type, such as application/ 
> xml or application/xhtml+xml.
>
> I think this would be better phrased as implementation advice
> rather than conformance criteria. There needs to be ONE
> document that REGISTERS application/xhtml+xml, and I don't think
> this document intends to be that.
>
> And application/xml already has a definition, and I don't think
> you're intending to update that -- or are you?
>
> I'm less certain about the normative language around file  
> extensions, but I think it
> is also likely to be inappropriate to give normative language for  
> what file
> extensions MUST be used.

The important part of the requirements here is that XHTML MUST NOT be  
served as text/html. HTML5 does intend to be the one document that  
registers text/html, and will not allow XHTML to be served as text/ 
html -- although XHTML that happens to also be a valid HTML document  
can be. As far as I can tell the requirement above doesn't really  
affect the existing registrations of application/xml or application/ 
xhtml+xml - they say what may be served with those MIME types, and  
XHTML5 certainly qualifies.

But perhaps a different fruitful way to think of this is to make it  
definitional, rather than a matter of conformance requirement. A  
resources served as text/html *is* (possibly invalid) HTML, and *is  
not* XHTML.

The purpose of this language is to clarify that the difference between  
HTML and XHTML, in the Web context, is determined by the MIME type,  
and not by particular DTD declarations or certain uses of slashes, or  
whatever other things people may mistakenly think makes a document  
XHTML.

Regards,
Maciej

Received on Sunday, 26 July 2009 04:18:14 UTC