RE: Comments on ATDI

Excellent feedback Johannes. Thank you.

1. It is expected, that following feedback, the next iteration
of the document will actually be a Note. I admit that the word
"Note" in the draft introduction may give the wrong impression.

2. The mention of "class" with respect to MQ indicates the
common usage, but unfortunately the phrase gives the impression
that this is the only usage. A rewording should clarify this.
Perhaps: "The rules are typically captured as a class..."

3. 'px': Oops! Of course, this merely emphasises the need for
automation in authoring, as it's so easy to let your fingers do
the typing while your brain goes on vacation.

4. The "click here" represents current (bad) practice, and one of the
purposes of the Note will be to expose current practice. However,
the WAI guidelines are quite right to highlight the inappropriateness
of this solution. Therefore I think perhaps we can compromise by
mentioning this solution, and emphasising that it is unsatisfactory
for reasons explained by WAI.

5. Perhaps something like this could be used:
  '"For assistance please *consult* our help desk", where *consult* is
  an anchor.'

6a. Actually, the "rel" attribute of HTML anchors did not prescribe
names or interpretations for its values (although it did reserve the
words 'Path' and 'Node' in version 3.0 and *propose* [1] some
relationships in HTML 3.2). What I should have said was:
"the original link did not clearly indicate the relationship to the
linked content, despite the availability of a 'rel' attribute. The
lack of a formal definition for link relationship meant that it was
almost never used. The situation improved later with the introduction
of HTML 4" [2]

6b. The original anchor tag did not have a 'type' attribute. It was not
not considered in HTML 3 [3], but did appear in HTML 4 [2]. Again, this
can be explained in the redrafting of the document.

Thank you for your insightful comments!

--Rotan


[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32.html
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/links.html
[3] http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/anchors.html



-----Original Message-----
From: Johannes Koch [mailto:koch@w3development.de]
Sent: 14 November 2003 10:02
To: www-di Mailingliste
Subject: Comments on ATDI



Hi,

some comments on the "Authoring Techniques for Device Independence" WD.


1:
In the introductory paragraphs the word "Note" appears several times. 
It's confusing to use "Note" when the document is not a "Note" but a 
"Working Draft".


2.2.2:
   In CSS Media Queries, the author defines rules based on contextual
   information. These rules are captured as a class and XHTML tags in a
   document may be assigned a class via the class attribute. The rules
   then affect the presentation of content associated with the class.

CSS in general does not only use class selectors. You can style an XHTML 
document without using a single class attribute in the XHTML.


7.2.2 Sample 5:

   @media screen and (max-device-width: 300pix) {
                                           ^^^
Should be 'px'.


8.2.1:
   A solution is to permit the author to make references such as "see X",
   (X being a named anchor) which may subsequently be rendered as "see
   Page 5" in pagination contexts, or perhaps "see Section 4.2" in a
   section-based decomposition context or "see here" where the "here" is
   rendered as a hyperlink in non-decomposition contexts.

According to the WAI guidelines, you should not use "click here" links. 
So please remove this example or use another phrase.


9.2:
   Hyperlinks (navigable anchors within content)
     A hyperlink is an embedded reference to a resource, or a part
     thereof, that is followed in response to an event (typically
     user-initiated). The problems of link maintenance are well
     understood but device independent authoring of links is less
     understood. Consider the simple choice of authoring a link to a help
     resource: one may write "For assistance please click here" where the
     here is the link.

For the same reason, please use another link phrase example.


9.4:
   The original linking mechanism has its deficiencies. For example, the
   link does not indicate the relationship between the linked content.

There are the rel and rev attributes for the HTML a element:
<a href="linked_resource" rel="relation">


   The type of the referenced target cannot be identified.

There is the type attribute for the HTML a element:
<a href="linked_resource" type="type_of_linked_resource">

-- 
Johannes Koch
In te domine speravi; non confundar in aeternum.
                             (Te Deum, 4th cent.)

Received on Friday, 14 November 2003 07:21:49 UTC