RE: Key results and recommendations from Face to Face

John M Slatin writes:
 > 
 > Perhaps "conventional" or "typical" would be better terms to use for
 > that first sense of the word "standard."  For example, it has become
 > "conventional" to use the link text "More ..." for a link to the
 > continuation of a news item.  By contrast, the HTML standard (in this
 > case a specification) requires that the link text is enclosed within an
 > anchor element.

John's choice of terminology is excellent. It also avoids the
objection that W3C Recommendations are, stricto sensu, not standards.
Perhaps we define "conventional and supported manner" to mean:

1. A manner prescribed in a technical specification defining the
   technologies used to implement the content.

2. A manner which has become customary within the community of Web
   content developers at large, or among specialists in the design of
   accessible content.

"Supported" would have to be defined in terms of implementation by
user agents or other applicable tools (e.g., content validation and
testing software). Again, it would have to be decided what the minimum
necessary level of implementation was, bringing us back to the
difficult question of user agent support.

Received on Saturday, 26 March 2005 07:58:51 UTC