aria-dialog and html5 element dialogue (a proposal)

aloha, james!

if hixie is amenable to a change in the element's name, then by all 
means, that is the best solution...  i have proposed a universal 
stroke global @role attribute for HTML5, so i would be in favor of
using @role to distinguish types of dialog, but with the caveat and
foreknowledge that the element name be semantically meaningful and
easily understood by those for whom english is not their first 
language...  so, i would nominate "dialogue" as the element name,
for that is actually the preferred spelling of the term when 
applied to multiple speakers in 4 of the 5 online thesauri i 
checked, so DIALOGUE as an HTML5 element name would make the most 
sense (and for those who cry "bloat", it is only 2 characters)

the next step is to provide a list of pre-defined roles for DIALOGUE:

"conversation"
"transcript"
"dialogue" (yes, @dialogue -- what else is one to call it when it applies
equally to theater, film, works of fiction, and so on)

and what else?  james, have you entered this into the W3C HTML5
bugzilla (http://www.w3.org/html/wg/bugzilla) -- should i?  it would
be good to log the "issue" and then allow people to add predefined 
role values in the bugzilla log -- is this the way that the PFWG can 
accelerate and contribute "positively" to HTML5?  (this is as much 
of a question to the individual PF WG members and to the chairs as 
it is rhetorical)

lastly, and NOT tangentally, why is this NOT being discussed on 
public-html?  this is an example of the problems inherent in the 
dual tracking of the HTML5 "effort" by the W3C and the WHAT WG -- 
this IS and will remain a SERIOUS problem until it is addressed in an
executive manner at the highest levels...  note that i have posted this
to a public list -- wai-xtech -- but NOT to public-html as i want to 
take the WG's pulse on this (and the approach i've outlined) before 
taking that step...

gregory.

---------- Original Message -----------
From: James Craig <jcraig@apple.com>
To: "Gregory J. Rosmaita" <oedipus@hicom.net>
Cc: w3c-wai-pf@w3.org, pstradomski@gmail.com
Sent: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:50:59 -0800
Subject: Re: aria-dialog versus HTML5 DIALOG element

> Gregory J. Rosmaita wrote:
> 
> > so, both aria-dialog and HTML5's DIALOG element are needed and
> > necessary, but both are intended for entirely different audiences and
> > it is by contextualizing the use of aria-dialog that such confusion
> > will be avoided...
> 
> I just want to minimize confusion between the two if it can be  
> avoided. Ian is open to a name change if a better one exists. I  
> suggested 'transcript' or just a simple 'dl' with an 
> differentiating  attribute.
> 
> http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/help-whatwg.org/2008-November/000152.html
------- End of Original Message -------

Received on Thursday, 27 November 2008 01:38:31 UTC