[Bug 5444] [SER] Non-XHTML elements with XHTML output method

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=5444





--- Comment #4 from C. M. Sperberg-McQueen <cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com>  2009-02-05 16:59:14 ---
If the goal of the XHTML output method is to try to help make
the output displayable with minimal pain in legacy HTML
browsers (or current HTML browsers which insist on going 
into quirks mode whether you want them to or not), then
I think the natural extension of that goal to mixed-namespace
documents and to documents with unknown elements in the
XHTML namespace is to try to make them behave as well
as possible for legacy browsers.

If so, then the original poster has a point w.r.t. empty-element
format, and it would probably be wise to mandate either
a start-end tag pair or a blank before the "/>" closing 
delimiter.

It's true, as Henry points out in comment 3, that a legacy
HTML browser is unlikely to be doing anything very helpful
or exciting with namespaced material not in the HTML
namespace.  But the rule "ignore all tags you do not 
understand", while not a complete solution, has stood
browsers, users, and those wishing to introduce new markup
in good stead.  And no matter what, I think inducing the
old browsers to ignore the tags completely is going to be
more useful than inducing them to display "/>" or ">"
in the text.


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Received on Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:59:25 UTC