Re: Polyglot Markup Formal Objection Rationale

Smylers, Mon, 5 Nov 2012 14:13:08 +0000:
> Leif Halvard Silli writes:
>> Smylers, Mon, 5 Nov 2012 12:37:37 +0000:
>> 
>>> The definition of the term "polyglot markup" is in a section explicitly
>>> marked as non-normative in the current draft spec, despite being linked
>>> to from elsewhere in that document as a definition:
>>> http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-html-polyglot-20121025/#dfn-polyglot-markup
>>> I think it's confusing that this definition _isn't_ normative, and I
>>> don't understand what linking to a non-normative definition means, or
>>> how there can be normative requirements for creating something which
>>> doesn't itself have a normative definition.
>> 
>> I believe that it is common, in specs, to denote principles (because 
>> this is a principle and not a definition, I would say) as 
>> non-normative.
> 
> I have no problem with there being non-normative principles distinct
> from normative definitions.
> 
> But currently the phrase "polyglot markup" elsewhere in the document
> links to the sentence in the non-normative introduction, which has the
> term in <dfn> tags. That certainly gives the impression that the spec
> intends that sentence to be the definition of the phrase "polyglot
> markup".
> 
>> I believe this is also the way the HTML5 spec is structured.
> 
> The HTML5 spec has a non-normative introduction, but it doesn't attempt
> to define terms in that introduction. All terms used are defined,
> normatively, in later sections.

The HTML5 spec defines an XHTML syntax and an HTML syntax.

http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/syntax.html#syntax
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/the-xhtml-syntax.html#the-xhtml-syntax

So Polyglot Markup should perhaps likewise define a polyglot syntax, 
normatively. A good proposal. 
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Monday, 5 November 2012 15:02:19 UTC