Re: Errors in HTML 4.0 Draft (rev. 24-Apr-1998)

Borg953@aol.com wrote:

> While I was going through your draft of HTML 4.0 (the 24-Apr-1998 revision), I
> noticed a few mistakes in the documents.  Here they are:
> 
> - When you discuss the < NOFRAMES > element, you fail to explicitly list its
> attributes like you do all other tags, implying that it takes no attributes.
> However, it takes the same attributes as many tags (class, dir, id, lang,
> style, title) and a number of script-events (onclick, ondblclick, onkeydown,
> onkeypress, onkeyup, onmousedown, onmousemove, onmouseout, onmouseover,
> onmouseup) that most elements take.

Ok.
 
> - When you likewise discuss the < HR > element, you list the dir and lang
> (text direction and language) attributes as ones that it takes.  Obviously, a
> horizontal rule would not require language identifiers!

Not so obvious...

For example, the "lang" attribute refers to the language of attribute
values as well. The "title" attribute may be used by people in the
accessibility to indicate the nature of a horizontal rule (e.g., to
say that it is being used as a visual section separator). Since this
information
may be written in any language, the "lang" attribute is indeed useful.
 
> These are only mistakes in the discussions on those elements (the section
> where it lists its definition in the DTD and explains its unique attributes).
> The Attributes chart appears to contain the correct information; i.e., it
> excludes dir and lang from < HR > and includes the attributes aforementioned
> with < NOFRAMES >.

In fact, this is where the error is for HR: the "lang" and "dir"
attributes
should be listed as defined elsewhere. As for NOFRAMES, I'll add the
appropriate list to the next revision of the spec.
 
> One more thing.  I'm developing an HTML editor based on the 4.0 draft.  Is
> there a mailing list I could be put on so I could be identified when either
> the 4.0 draft is revised or a new "version" of HTML (say, a 5.0 draft) is
> released?  I would love to know when the latest information is available.

I don't know of any automatic mechanism we have to do this. Following
headlines
http://www.w3.org/ doesn't satisfy your request, but you can be
guaranteed
that we'll make announcements there. 

I'll ask the systems team for information about automatic notification.

> Thank you for your time.  Keep up the good work!

Thanks to you as well, both for the comments and the support.
I'll update the errata sheet.

 - Ian

-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org) 
Tel/Fax: (212) 684-1814 
http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs

Received on Monday, 29 June 1998 11:39:01 UTC