FW: XHTML, attribute minimization, and deployed UAs

[sorry if triplicate - first didn't seem to go through. then i sent a second
time by mistake to www-style. *sigh* ]

I hope I'm wrong about this:

XHTML documents containing formerly minimizable attributes don't work in
current browsers.

In HTML, these constructs are common:

<input checked>
<option selected>
<ul compact>
<textarea wrap>   (ns extension)
<td nowrap>       (deprecated, but needed even in IE5 since it still doesn't
                   implement CSS1)

In XHTML, however, these must become:

<input checked="checked">
<option selected="selected">
<ul compact="compact">
<textarea wrap="wrap">
<td nowrap="nowrap">

...and in my testing with today's browsers, this syntax fails to deliver the
hoped-for results. I've tried adding whitespace in various places (a la <br
/>) without success.

This is a real deterrent to using XHTML for, say, tables and forms:
precisely the application where machine-generation and other powerful
XML/DOM-based stuff is most compelling.

Again, I hope I'm wrong. But if I'm not, shouldn't this nasty fact be noted
in sections 4.2, 5, and Appendix C of the WD? Currently the language is
misleadingly reassuring.


--
Todd Fahrner                    The printed page transcends space and time.
mailto:fahrner@pobox.com        The printed page, the infinitude of books,
http://style.verso.com/         must be transcended. THE ELECTRO-LIBRARY.
                                                   - El Lissitzky, 1923

Received on Saturday, 27 March 1999 21:25:59 UTC