- From: Lachlan Hunt <lhunt07@netscape.net>
- Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2003 02:10:29 +1100
- Cc: www-html@w3.org
ernestcline@mindspring.com wrote:
>While there are some nice features in XHTML2 (enough that as soon as there is widespread support of it as opposed to support by a single user agent as you stated, I will use it by default) There is nothing in the proposal that cannot be achieved by prudent use of XHTML 1. <section>, <h>, and <nl> are all very nice, but they are not enough to cause the average user to wish to abandon XHTML1 or even HTML4 until XHTML2 is nearly as well supported as HTML4 is today.
>
I actually somewhat disagree with you. I think there is already so
much added and changed that it would be worth updating.
Aside from the <section> and <h> elements already stated which can be
achieved using this:
<div class="section">
<h1 class="h">heading 1</h1>
<div class="section">
<h2 class="h">heading 2</h2>
<!-- etc... -->
</div>
</div>
And the <nl> which can be somewhat achieved using <ul>, there are some
things which cannot be so easily translated into XHTML1 equivalents.
For example, the inclusion of XForms and XMLEvents are a big advantage
for accessability, and other advantages over current html forms and
script event handlers like @onclick, etc. Despite the current lack of
support for these relatively new technologies, by the time XHTML 2 is
supported, these, hopefully, will be too. However, there are also some
good enhancements to the elements and attributes:
Improved Attribute Collections:
* The Hypertext attribute collection which can be specified
on most (or all?) elements provides many useful advantages.
Being able to make any element a hyperlink with @href or a
citation with @cite
* The Edit attribute collection changing from the two elements,
which now allows changed and moved to be specified, wheras
only insert and delete can with the elements.
* The dir attribute in the Bi-di text collection, which
replaces <bdo> which now also supports lro and rlo with ltr
and rtl.
Improved Elements:
* <title> now suports inline elements, which perhaps might be
good for specifing style such as aural styles so that the
way a title is read by a speech synthesizer can be changed,
or maybe visual UAs might support multi-coloured titles...
who knows?
* The <blockcode> which can only be presentationally achieved
using <pre> or maybe:
<div>
<code style="display:block"></code>
</div>.
* The <l> element (personally, I think is one of the best
elements I've seen for structure) which can be approximated
using:
<span class="line">text</span><br />,
though not quite as semantic as <l>.
(The <br> is needed in XHTML1 for those UA that have
style sheets disabled, or not supported to still see the
line break, but the <span> allows for styling such as line
numbers, or whatever.)
* The <object> element has been improved. Reducing the number
of object specific attributes from
"archive, classid, codebase, codetype, data, declare, standby" to
"archive, data, declare, content-length and Common",
and replacing @standby with <standby>. makes it easier to use by being
less ambiguous.
Plus, there's the complete removal of all the presentational elements,
(well, aside from <hr/> as well as <sub> and <sub>, though, personally,
I don't think they do have some semantic meaning because it does
actually mean something when a subscript or superscript is read in a
document, rather than just looking good.)
So, IMO, although there are XHTML1 substitues for, there are quite a
lot of changes in XHTML2 that will be worth taking advantage of as soon
as possible.
CYA
...Lachy!
Received on Friday, 5 December 2003 10:10:36 UTC