- From: Ian Graham <igraham@smaug.java.utoronto.ca>
- Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 20:48:43 -0500 (EST)
- To: www-html@w3.org
Hi -- Here are some comments/notes upon reading the HTML 4 Proposed Recommendation of 7/November/1997, HTML Version. Some of these describe points I found unclear in the specification (e.g., error handling for ACCESSKEY), while other are questions about items I found unclear, or contradictory. Hope you find it useful. 1. The DTD permits IFRAME elements inside a PRE. Is this sensible, given that other inclusion elements (APPLET, OBJECT, IMG) are excluded from PRE content? 2. The content model for INS/DEL is perplexing to me. As I read the DTD, INS/DEL is allowed only within BODY, and can contain %flow -- but this makes it impossible to use INS/DEL within block or inline elements. If %inline were change to include INS/DEL, then INS/DEL could go anywhere -- (not sure about this, but it seems to make sense). Perhaps there is, on the other hand, a good reason for the existing, restricted model? 3. Definition of "Normative" and "Informative" (Section 4.1) I am often asked for a definition of 'normative'-- this would appear to be an unfamiliar term to many of the people who are reading these documents. Perhaps a suitable definition could be added to section 4.1. For example (I'm sure there are better wordings): Normative -- Sections of this documment serving as the official definition of a protocol, language, or syntax. Informative -- Sections of this document that describe possible implementations, behaviors, or uses of a protocol, syntax, or language, but that are not normative. 4. Section 17.2 -- FORM Element GET Method The FORM METHOD="Get" is noted as deprecated. This seems overly harsh, since GET method form queries are the only such query that is bookmarkable. If this is to be deprecated, is there then an alternative mechanism? 5. Section 17.6(.1) -- ACCESSKEY Navigation -- Error handling Section 17.6 does not appear to specify behavior when two elements are assigned the same accesskey character, or even note that this is an error. Perhaps the text could say: "ACCESSKEY values must be unique within a document, to ensure unambiguous binding between keys and elements. If two elements are assigned the same key value, then a well-mannered user-agent will select the first element in the character stream (starting from the beginning of the document) that is assigned the defined key." 5. How will ACCESSKEY function with a group of LEGEND-labeled FIELDSETs? I can visualize the behavior for a bunch of "tabbed" overlapping menus, but cannot for a bunch of fieldsets that appear on the same view. 6. Section 17.6.1, Item 1 -- TABINDEX Order. ... States that tabindexed items are navigated in the order they appear in the character stream. In practice, however, the navigation order depends on the item selected by the cursor, provided the selected item is part of the tabbing sequence. In this case, the tabbing order should start from the position in the ordered sequence defined by the selected item. Perhaps the specification should reflect this behavior, for example by adding something like: If an item in the tabbing sequence is selected by some means other than tabbing (for example, via the mouse pointer), then the tabbing sequence starts from the selected item. 7. Section 11.2.4 -- The COL element. The Nov 9 draft drops the SPAN attribute (columns spanned by the col) and replaces it with REPEAT. However, MSIE 3/4 uses SPAN to provide this functionality. If this attribute change is intentional, then the document should note SPAN as a deprecated attribute, with RANGE as a preferred, functional synonym. 8. Section 7.5.3 -- Block and Inline Elements Section 7.5.3 describes the difference between block and inline formatting element types, but does not define the default formatting types for the various BODY-content HTML elements (some are obvious, some are not). I would expect this document to define the default types, before noting that style sheets can override the default values. Best, Ian -- Ian Graham ......................... Centre for Academic Technology i a n d o t g r a h a m a t u t o r o n t o d o t c a Information Commons Tel: 416-978-4548 University of Toronto Fax: 416-978-7705 ..................... http://www.utoronto.ca/ian/ .................
Received on Sunday, 14 December 1997 20:49:02 UTC