[whatwg] [html5] Rendering of interactive content

Giovanni Campagna writes:

> So the whole rendering section is just for implementors and authors
> should act if no default style sheet is present

No; the section is also for authors, in that it advises them of how
content is expected to be rendered in mainstream graphical browsers.

> or worse, if it could be everything, like a inline-block <div> or blue
> <table>,

Indeed it _could_ be anything, but there's no reason for authors to be
worried about that; if a (non-malicious) user-agent does something
different from that expected by HTML 5 then it presumably has done so
intentionally and it wouldn't necessarily benefit users for authors to
attempt to combat it.

> so that the author should set all supported properties to initial or
> the HTML5 "expected" value?

Not necessarily.

> That is: I, author, want consistent rendering on all plaforms and
> browser:

I think that's where you're going wrong.  Platforms themselves aren't
consistent -- in things like screen sizes, resolutions, distance between
screen and audience, whether they are interactive, what input devices
are available, pagination.

If an esoteric platform chooses to divert from the expected HTML 5
rendering then it's likely because that platform knows more about what
rendering is appropriate for that platform that you do.

> I import the HTML5 style sheet inside author ones.

That's a very parochial view.

In mainstream graphical browsers such importing would be redundant,
because they'll have the expected behaviour anyway.

In esoteric user-agents you cannot know that the HTML 5 defaults provide
a better user experience than those chosen by the user-agents'
developers.

> I, implementor, want to provide backward-compatible rendering for
> those author that didn't follow rule 1), I import HTML5 style sheet
> inside UA defaults.  In both case, a downloadable stylesheet would be
> much appreciated.

I think a downloadable style-sheet is inevitable!

Smylers

Received on Monday, 9 February 2009 06:24:19 UTC