Re: [heycam/webidl] Add [Historical] extended attribute (#929)

@annevk commented on this pull request.

Somewhat confusingly we also use the term historical in web-platform-tests to test for non-support of obsolete features. (And HTML uses obsolete to mean obsolete for web developers, but not fur user agents.)

Suffice to say it's all a bit of a mess, but I'd like us to agree on a way forward. Are we going to use historical for discouraged features that stick around? (And name new non-support tests differently?)

> @@ -9725,6 +9725,31 @@ corresponding to [=interface members=].
 </div>
 
 
+<h4 id="Historical" extended-attribute lt="Historical">[Historical]</h4>
+
+When the [{{Historical}}] [=extended attribute=] appears on an individual
+[=dictionary member=], [=interface member=], [=interface mixin member=], or
+[=namespace member=], it indicates that the construct exists for historical

a historical reason

> @@ -9725,6 +9725,31 @@ corresponding to [=interface members=].
 </div>
 
 
+<h4 id="Historical" extended-attribute lt="Historical">[Historical]</h4>
+
+When the [{{Historical}}] [=extended attribute=] appears on an individual
+[=dictionary member=], [=interface member=], [=interface mixin member=], or
+[=namespace member=], it indicates that the construct exists for historical
+reason.
+
+The [{{Historical}}] extended attribute must
+[=takes no arguments|take no arguments=].
+
+<div class="example">
+    There are Web APIs that have been replaced by better new APIs and are

Generally we keep web lowercase as per https://whatwg.org/style-guide (unless it's part of a title or some such) though it seems IDL is somewhat inconsistent on this.

> @@ -9725,6 +9725,31 @@ corresponding to [=interface members=].
 </div>
 
 
+<h4 id="Historical" extended-attribute lt="Historical">[Historical]</h4>
+
+When the [{{Historical}}] [=extended attribute=] appears on an individual
+[=dictionary member=], [=interface member=], [=interface mixin member=], or
+[=namespace member=], it indicates that the construct exists for historical
+reason.
+
+The [{{Historical}}] extended attribute must
+[=takes no arguments|take no arguments=].
+
+<div class="example">
+    There are Web APIs that have been replaced by better new APIs and are
+    generally discouraged to use. Code editors can consider this extended
+    attribute as a hint to warn users where such APIs are used. Browser
+    implementations may also consider this as a suggestion to add use counters.

I actually don't think it's worth the effort of removing these APIs. They are not harmful and removing them might break the end user experience on sites, causing frustration for most parties involved.

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Received on Wednesday, 7 October 2020 08:47:24 UTC