PFWG comments on DOM 3 Events

The Protocols and Formats Working Group is submitting this comment on
the DOM Level 3 Events Last Call Working Draft of 7 September 2010
[http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-DOM-Level-3-Events-20100907/].
Authorization to send this as a formal comment of the PFWG is archived
at http://www.w3.org/2011/01/05-pf-minutes.html#item07. We know you are
aware of our concerns and we have coordinated with you extensively
outside of the public comments channel to arrive at appropriate
solutions. We decided that it was important also to register our
concerns on the public record as formal public comments; hence this message.

The PFWG has two concerns about DOM Level 3 Events:

    * The deprecation of mutation events;
    * The deprecation of the "DOMActivate" event and, more generally,
      the need for expanded device-independent events.

Regarding mutation events, we understand that they are not well
supported as defined and there are plans to meet the use case in the
future with an improved solution. Further, we acknowledge that
"deprecated" does not mean "not supported". Therefore we do not wish to
register an objection to this. But we do note that the availability of
an improved solution in the future is critical and anticipation of this
is our reason for non-objection to the current state.

In discussion with you about device independent events, there was
consensus between both the PFWG and the Web Applications WG that there
is a need for a new class of device-independent events. This is critical
to our ability to produce accessible solutions on mobile devices that
make require gestures to command and control applications. As an
outgrowth of our process with you and other processes, a Web Events
Working Group has been chartered to take on work that we believe will
meet the requirement. Our potential objection to issues in DOM 3 Events
is addressed by, and contingent on, this work.

In summary, potential PFWG concerns about DOM 3 Events are addressed by
work planned to take place in the future. While we believe all relevant
parties intend in good faith to execute this work, the outcome of future
work cannot be guaranteed. Therefore it is important for us to register,
as a formal comment on DOM 3 Events, that should the above work fail to
achieve the expected deliverables, our concerns with DOM 3 Events would
be renewed.

We do not request any edits to the specification, merely recording of
this comment in the issue disposition report when you advance to the
next stage of the W3C Recommendation process.

On behalf of the PFWG,
Michael Cooper
-- 

Michael Cooper
Web Accessibility Specialist
World Wide Web Consortium, Web Accessibility Initiative
E-mail cooper@w3.org <mailto:cooper@w3.org>
Information Page <http://www.w3.org/People/cooper/>