Re: Comments on WD-xmlgl-20010829

Thanks Bjoern.

We'll address your comments soon.


> Hi,
> 
> General:
> 
>   * I'm not happy with the term "tagset" used throughout the document.
>     This should be element or feature set. It's all too common to refer
>     with "tag" to elements and attributes, which is definitly wrong and
>     makes it hard to talk to each other about them. Other possible
>     replacements would be "schema", "language" or "application", but
>     please don't use "tagset".
> 
>   * The document uses 'schemata' while e.g. XML Schema uses 'schemas'
>     instead. I suggest to use the latter for reasons of consistency.
> 
>   * All those abbreviations and acronyms should get appropriate title
>     attributes, im not happy with all those PFWG, WCAG, WAI GL, ATAG,
>     UAAG, etc.pp.
> 
> Abstract:
> 
>   "[...] This document explains how to design accessible applications
>    using XML, the Extensible Markup Language. Compared to the HTML or
>    MathML languages, XML is one level up: it is a meta syntax used to
>    describe these languages, as well as new ones. [...]"
> 
> This statement is wrong, XML isn't used to describe HTML. I recommend to
> change s/HTML/XHTML/.
> 
> Status of this document:
> 
>   "[...] Depending on the feedback received, this document may become a
>    W3C Note, be integrated in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
>    suite (e.g as a technique for XML) or enter its own Recommendation
>    track. [...]"
> 
> I strongly recommend to make it a recommendation, not a note.
> 
> Introduction:
> 
> [...]
>  <title>XML and Accessibility</title>
>  <address lang=fr>Daniel Dardailler</address>
>  <h1>Background</h1>
> [...]
> 
> I recommend to change this example fragment to indicate, that this isn't
> meant to be a document, e.g. by using empty lines or "[...]" or
> something similar.
> 
> The address element isn't used the way it should, HTML 4 says about
> address: "The ADDRESS element may be used by authors to supply contact
> information for a document or a major part of a document such as a
> form".
> 
> HTML 4 recommends (i.e. a RFC 2119 "SHOULD") to quote attribute values,
> even if you don't have to, this should be changed here, too.
> 
> "[...] and they can only use elements (title, h1, etc) [...]"
> 
> There is a missing period after 'etc'. I've seen
> <span lang='la' title='et cetera'>etc.</span> in some recommendations,
> maybe this should be also done for this document, but I'm not convinced,
> this is a that good idea.
> 
> XML Grammars, and The Scope Of XMLGL:
> 
> I'm not happy with "Data-oriented" and "Metadata-oriented". I think
> there is a common distinction between "Data-oriented" or "data centric"
> and "document centric/oriented" design of XML applications, e.g. the
> distinction between
> 
>   <product>
>     <price currency='EUR'>35</price>
>     <shippingDate format='ISO-compact'>19940203T141529Z</shippingDate>
>   </product>
> 
> and
> 
>   <p>Product costs <price currency='EUR'>35</price> and will be shipped
>      on <shippingDate format='ISO-compact'>...
> 
> (certainly no good examples, but I think you get the point).
> 
> Problem statement:
> 
>   "[...] freedom of design it bringshas and can result in a loss of
>                                     ^
>    accessibility [...]"
> 
> There is a missing white space (and possibly a comma, but I'm not an
> expert for US English grammar ;-)
> 
> Guideline 1.2:
> 
>   "[...] Another way would have been to add an "appliesto" attribute to
>    the <img> element [...]"
> 
> I recommend to s/appliesto/appliesTo/ or use another name; I read this
> as some italian word I didn't know. I general, I'd call that name an
> accessability flaw :)
> 
> Guideline 2.2:
> 
>   "[...] Authors must be able to mark up documents with proper
>    structural elements and control presentation with style sheets rather
>    than with presentation elements and attributes. [...]"
> 
> There should be some "unless" for applications like XSL, since XSL would
> be (and probably is) superfluous otherwise. XSL isn't really accessible,
> is it? If so, XSL shouldn't be refernce material for this document.
> 
> Techniques for 2.2:
> 
> [...]
>   mystyle.css: .news { text-align: center; font: bold arial }
> 
>   <?xml-stylesheet href="mystyle.css" type="text/css"?>
>   <p class="news">News items 1</p>
>   <p class="news">News items 2</p>
>   <p class="news">News items 3</p>
> [...]
> 
> As above, this example is very bad. First, the class attribute may be
> considered harmful and it's somehow abused here. The style sheet should
> use another selector e.g. 
> 
>   #news > p { } /* or */
>   #news p
> 
> or something like that and the document should reflect this. Second, the
> style sheet is bad, since it doesn't define a generic font family as the
> last alternative and "Arial" isn't named "arial" and there may be
> operating systems treating font family names case-sensitive. Last but
> not least this example implies, we look at a complete document. The
> xml-stylesheet processing instruction is only allowed in the prolog of
> the document; authors often get this wrong (there are W3C TRs which use
> them at inappropriate places, thus rendering the document invalid); if
> it were meant to be in the prolog, we have multiple document elements,
> which is not valid in XML.
> 
> Techniques for 2.3:
> 
> I don't see any good reason for changing element "mylink" to "crossref".
> This is confusing and not reflected by highlighting the element type.
> 
> Guideline 2.5:
> 
>   "[...] non- visual [...]"
> 
> one less white space here.
> 
> Techniques for 3.3:
> 
> The example document violates some WCAG checkpoint by using h3 in place
> of h1; additionally, it's an transitional document (and it shouldn't be)
> since it uses inline elements ('a') as child of element 'body'. HTML
> provides by the way elements to mark up lists,
> 
>   <p>x.x.x ...<br />x.x.y ...</p>
> 
> isn't an appropriate way to mark up a list.
> 
> Techniques for 3.4:
> 
> Element 'script' lacks of required attribute 'type'.
> 
> Appendix A: Techniques Rationale:
> 
> XHTML doesn't only have ul and li to mark up lists, there is also dl,
> dt, dd and ol.
> 
> I'll comment on the guidelines and techniques in more detail when I get
> time. I think there are some things missing...
> 
> regards,
> -- 
> Björn Höhrmann { mailto:bjoern@hoehrmann.de } http://www.bjoernsworld.de
> am Badedeich 7 } Telefon: +49(0)4667/981028 { http://bjoern.hoehrmann.de
> 25899 Dagebüll { PGP Pub. KeyID: 0xA4357E78 } http://www.learn.to/quote/

Received on Thursday, 30 August 2001 08:25:24 UTC