charset attribute on a, link and script elements

The HTML5 spec currently says: 

"The following attributes are obsolete (though the elements are still part of the language), and must not be used by authors:
charset on a elements
charset on link elements
    Use an HTTP Content-Type header on the linked resource instead."

Could someone please explain for me/point me to the thread that gives answers to the following questions:

1. Why is charset on link and a deprecated?
2. Why is charset on script not treated the same way as charset on link?
3. Why the recommended alternative for charset on link doesn't mention in-document declarations such as @charset, especially since http headers are not available when the CSS is not read from a server.

Thanks,
RI


PS: In case it saves time for future discussions, you can find some test results for use of link and charset on major browsers at http://www.w3.org/International/tests/tests-html-css/tests-character-encoding/results-css-encoding. 

============
Richard Ishida
Internationalization Lead
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)

http://www.w3.org/International/
http://rishida.net/

Received on Thursday, 22 April 2010 10:39:16 UTC