Re: HTML is a declarative mark-up language

Hi Anne,

Anne van Kesteren 2009-01-29 12.51:
> On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:49:39 +0100, Leif Halvard Silli  
> <lhs@malform.no> wrote:
>> Ian Hickson 2009-01-29 03.12:
>> [...]
>>
>>> I'm sure there are examples of attributes that aren't defined in  
>>> terms that really help authors today (Lachy on IRC suggested  
>>> target=""
>>
>> How nice that HTML 4 exists for  them.
> Reading this and the rest of your e-mail I get the impression you  
> are not really interested in helping making HTML5 a better  
> specification. It almost reads like you're just flaming at the way  
> things currently are rather than helping out with improving the  
> status quo. Why is that?


I'm not sure if that's simply a rhetorical question, because you as  
much as anyone should know the answer. Many of us (including Leif and  
myself) arrived here with the intention of improving the status quo.  
However, the grandstanding by you and others have effectively shut us  
out entirely from the process. Serious proposals are shot down with  
witty one liners, by you and Ian and others. I cannot speak for Leif,  
but my view now is that the best thing that can happen for the web is  
that the disastrous HTML vocabulary chapters never get published as a  
normative recommendation. In any event other damage has already been  
done since all of the effort spent on HTML5 has served to stifle any  
genuine improvements to the HTML vocabulary for several years (and  
other efforts like HTML 5 have undermined efforts to improve the  
status quo going back nearly a decade). The unwillingness to improve  
the parsing algorithm also is a part of the status quo that needs to  
change.

There are minor improvements to the HTML vocabulary in HTML5 ('figure'  
and 'canvas' to name two), however, they are so intermixed with the  
HTML5 baggage that they don't really provide significant benefits in  
the end.

Take care,
Rob

Received on Thursday, 29 January 2009 23:06:44 UTC