Issues with @token scoping and hidden-data

There were two issues that came to light during the discussion last
Thursday during the telecon... documenting them here to see if any
solutions or alternative viewpoints pop up.

So with the current @token proposal, it is asserted that the following
will happen:

* @token declarations, when specified in RDFa Profile documents, will be
  pulled into author documents via @profile.
* @token declarations are processed differently in RDFa Profile
  documents than they are in regular documents.

Here are the concerns with the previous points:

1. Are we promoting the use of hidden data in RDFa Profile documents?
Specifically, if one must do this to have their @token declarations seen
via @profile:

<html token="Person: http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person; name:
http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name; depiction:
http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/depiction;">
...
</html>

Is that a good thing? Hidden data is commonly viewed as an anti-pattern
in the semantics-embedded-in-HTML world - we do it only if there is no
other alternative available.

2. Are we comfortable with @token not following the standard
all-RDFa-attributes-are-scoped design pattern that has served us well up
to this point? So, if the RDFa Profile document contains something like
this:

<html>
...
<body>
   <p token="Person: http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person">
   You can use "Person" in the typeof attribute to specify that
   the subject is a human being.
   </p>
...
</body>
</html>

If we want to allow that markup, which one could argue is more desirable
than the markup outlined in #1, it would mean that we must view @token
as scope-less when processed as a part of an RDFa Profile. It's an
exception that makes understanding RDFa slightly more complicated. Not a
deal-killer by any means, but it's concerning none-the-less.

-- manu

-- 
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny)
President/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
blog: PaySwarming Goes Open Source
http://blog.digitalbazaar.com/2010/02/01/bitmunk-payswarming/

Received on Saturday, 20 March 2010 03:08:39 UTC