- From: Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@apple.com>
- Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:24:45 -0800
- To: Tim Berners-Lee <timbl@w3.org>
- Cc: Henri Sivonen <hsivonen@iki.fi>, Ben Adida <ben@adida.net>, Julian Reschke <julian.reschke@gmx.de>, Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net>, HTMLWG WG <public-html@w3.org>, RDFa mailing list <public-rdf-in-xhtml-tf@w3.org>, public-xhtml2@w3.org, "www-tag@w3.org WG" <www-tag@w3.org>
On Mar 5, 2009, at 4:49 PM, Tim Berners-Lee wrote: > > Yes, the goal of having one code path on top of a namespace-aware > API is important. > > When one has a namespace-aware API, shame not to have the namespaces. > What are the arguments against implementing xmlns: recognition in > *future* HTML5 parsers? > > (I can't imagine that there are a lot of people who have > accidentally used the string xmlns: inside attribute names in the > past. :) This assumption is incorrect. There is quite a bit of mistaken use of xmlns in text/html, and also use of mistaken tag and attribute names with colons. It is a combination of outright mistakes, sending of XHTML as text/html without full understanding, use of IE-specific extensions (in ways that would fail in other browsers) due to the way IE does namespaces in HTML, and generation by various tools, including Microsoft Office, of content that uses namespaces in ways that would likely break. If it were not for this content legacy, then I think using xmlns to declare namespaces in HTML would be worth considering. > > There would still be a need for kludge code for legacy browsers, but > with time some applications would just propose to work with XHTML > and HTML in newer browsers. (For example, things which need other > new features anyway). Others would keep the kludge code in forever. > But it would be a huge step forward toward solving this issue. (As a side note, I think Henri has in the past pointed out serious issues with using QNames in content, which is what CURIEs as used by RDFa amount to. But to be fair, those issues are not entirely HTML- specific and remain flaws even in pure XML use.) Regards, Maciej
Received on Friday, 6 March 2009 01:25:33 UTC