[whatwg] output element

On Sun, 13 Jun 2004, Jim Ley wrote:
>
> The output element is all rather confused, you say:
>
> | Its namespace is the same as for the other form control elements,
> | http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml
>
> Yet, earlier in the document you state this is an extension to HTML 4.01,
> elements in SGML don't have a namespace?

Added "(in XML)" to that sentence. It doesn't apply to HTML4, you are
right, only to the XHTML1 formulation.


> Even for XHTML 1.0, does the WHATWG have change control over the
> namespace?

WHATWG has as much control over XHTML1's namespace as it does over the
HTML4 namespace, the DOM namespace, and so forth. That is to say, none,
officially speaking at least.

However, since the whole point of this work is to be backwards compatible
with HTML4, while still supporting authors who wish to use XHTML, and
without requiring the use of namespaces (since authors find them
confusing), there isn't much choice as to which namespace the elements
have to find themselves in.


> As I'm sure those members of the WHATWG also concerned with CSS would be
> the first to concede when other WG's write changes to the spec all you
> get is an incompatible mess.

Indeed. That is why this work is so concerned with preserving backwards
compatibility.


> You say that the output element is very much like a span element, but
> then go on to talk about defaultValue's without specifying what happens
> to child elements of the output element: e.g. what does:
>
> <output><em>Oops</em></output>
>
> give?

Exactly the same as <span><em>Oops</em></output>

The value of  output.value  would be "Oops". If you then said
something like  output.value = 'foo';  then the element would be removed
(as defined in the spec, 'value' is equivalent to 'textContent' here).


> Is it really like a span element?

Yes, apart from the differences in the attributes mentioned in the spec.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Wednesday, 16 June 2004 09:39:33 UTC