RE: <dialog> and the

On Wed, 28 Jan 2009, Cain, Sally wrote:
> 
> I think we need to realise that many people who write html are not 
> techies and this is where this subtlety will prove even more confusing. 
> I am an advocate of simplicity and clear language and as such I think it 
> is much more preferable to call the html5 tag exactly what it is.

It represents a dialog... the problem isn't that the HTML5 element isn't 
called what it is, the problem is that the word that is used to describe 
what it is also happens to have another meaning in the tech world.

The reason I suggested renaming the ARIA keyword is that "dialog" is an 
abbreviation for what the ARIA keyword means (it's a dialog box, not just 
a dialog, that it is referring to), whereas the HTML5's element name is 
not an abbreviation (one refers to dialogs as just dialogs).

I think that non-techies are far less likely to be confused by this (since 
they don't know that the computer things are called "dialog boxes") than 
techies, to be honest. If non-techies are the concern, then I would be 
even more of the opinion that the ARIA keyword is the one that should 
change.

However, as noted before, I'm fine with neither changing; I was only 
raising this issue because it was one of the issues on my list of feedback 
and I was interested in working with the WAIPF on this issue to see if it 
would be possible for the WAIPF to consider changing the keyword instead.

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

Received on Wednesday, 28 January 2009 19:40:57 UTC