[xhtml2] layout - style or semantics.

Hi,
This is a QA Review comment for "XHTML 2.0"
http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-xhtml2-20060726/
2006-07-26
8th WD

About http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-xhtml2-20060726/mod-core.html#adef_core_layout


XHTML 2.0 might generate a lot of discussion around this one. Style or semantics? The feature already exists in CSS. So what is the use case? The example is not a good one.

  <p class="poem" layout="relevant">
  (with wee ears and see?

  tail frisks)
               (gonE)
  </p>

It is indeed relevant in this case. but it will be difficult to convince people with this example. A python/fortran code would be more relevant because indeed in the syntax of the language, space matters and if the spaces are not handled correctly, then it leads to parsing problems. The group might answer that there is the blockcode element for this. But see my message about semantics. 

Though there is a problem, it says

 "layout = irrelevant*|relevant
 This attribute allows authors to indicate whether 
 the whitespace within an element is relevant to the 
 meaning of the content or not; for instance, visual 
 user agents could display the whitespace. The default 
 is that it is irrelevant. Some elements, notably pre 
 override this default. See whitespace handling in the 
 section on XHTML Family User Agent Conformance for more 
 information."

* The rules of white space Handling (please give a direct link to the appropriate section in XML specification)  
  http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/#NT-S


* What is the precise mechanism which regulates the possible conflicts between  
 - layout attribute, 
 - pre element,
 - xml:space, and 
 - CSS property?



-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager, QA Activity Lead
   QA Weblog - http://www.w3.org/QA/
      *** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Thursday, 17 August 2006 03:28:22 UTC