[comment-rex] XPath interoperability

Hi,
This is a QA Review comment for "Remote Events for XML (REX) 1.0"
http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-rex-20060202/
2006-02-02
1st WD 

About http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-rex-20060202/#path-syntax

[[[User-agents MAY support a superset of this syntax so long as it is a valid instance of the XPath language [XPATH]. Content producers however SHOULD NOT use such extensions as they hamper interoperability.]]]

This is slippery (specifically when you are hunting dahut ;). If one user agent proposes the feature at a point in time where it dominates the market, everyone will use it. Another risk of user agent sniffing to send the right rex to the right user agent.

What's happening when a author used the extended possibilities of a browser X but they are not supported in the browser Y? Request a warning mechanism for user agent to inform users that the rex message contains XPath features which are not processable. A specific event could be sent by the browser so it will be machine identifiable as well.



-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager, QA Activity Lead
   QA Weblog - http://www.w3.org/QA/
      *** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Monday, 3 July 2006 06:32:36 UTC