DOM3 Events - additional editing help to move the spec forward

(Cross-post to www-dom for visibility, sorry for dups)

Hey folks,

I'm joining Jacob Rossi to help work on editing the DOM L3 Events spec; I have some time to address some of the editorial last call comments, and I hope to move through them all pretty quickly.

I know there are a variety of opinions out there regarding the DOM L3 Events spec, and what should be done with it. I'm going to start with the basis that it's a good spec. It provides a great deal of context into the event dispatch model (in the form of prose, versus the new algorithmic approach that has been popular since the HTML5 spec first hit the scene). It also describes basic concepts such as default actions and their effect on cancelable events, trusted events, etc., for which having a central reference is quite informative. In addition to the common event types, it also defines the elusive KeyboardEvent, a hallmark of this spec since the beginning.

This spec is certainly aging. It's one of the oldest specs that is still in active development. I can see working drafts of DOM Level 3 events dating back to September 1st, 2000 [1]. Many, many folks have contributed to, reviewed, and provided feedback on this spec along the way. With the relatively youthful DOM4 spec poised to take the torch for the next round of DOM event functionality, I'd prefer to close up any lingering issues with DOM L3 Events, get it done (to Recommendation status), and turn my attention to DOM4. Getting DOM L3 Events to Rec is a very important milestone for UAs and implementations like IE, that have made a commitment to supporting this spec, have an existing implementation, and need a stable reference specification for our customers and partners.

To support the goal of finishing DOM Level 3 Events (in light of the current work happening in DOM4), I'm jumping in to help Jacob finish addressing last call comments. I've interested in ensuring that the concepts and normative requirements of DOM Level 3 Events do not conflict with the existing model described in DOM4. In this way, I think DOM4 will be a natural succession from DOM Level 3 Events and will add to the richness of the eventing platform on the web.

I've already made a few changes to the spec in regard to some existing last call comments [2]. I'm not done. I'll be officially working through bugs filed in the "DOM3 Events" component of the W3C Bug Tracker [3], and will be moving other issues from Tracker [4] into that system to make my life easier. Please file new comments as bugs, and I'll follow up there.

As always, feel free to review the spec. The latest editor's draft is at:
http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/DOM-Level-3-Events/html/DOM3-Events.html


[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-DOM-Level-3-Events-20000901/
[2] Made WebIDL a normative dependency and updated IDL fragments and exceptions accordingly; reviewed and removed RFC2119 normative statements from comments and a few other places I found them in.
[3] https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/buglist.cgi?product=WebAppsWG&component=DOM3%20Events&resolution=---
[4] https://www.w3.org/2008/webapps/track/products/2

-Travis

Received on Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:31:42 UTC