XHTML 1.1 modularization last call: legacy module

In http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.w3c.announce/175 I
"stumbled" over the "XHTML Modularization 1.1" last call, and
looked into
http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-xhtml-modularization-20060705/changes.html

One of the minor fixes is the deprecation of the legacy module.

One (potential) problem I have with this module, apparently I
can get either all of it, or nothing, see 3.1 (4) and 3.2 (4).

Wrt the legacy module I'd be interested to get the minimum
that's needed for new "backwards compatible" content, where
"backwards compatible" would be a say HTML 3.2 browser.  These
old browsers have no idea what XHTML, CSS, DOCTYPE, DTDs, etc.
is, from that POV the legacy module is irrelevant.

But it could help me if I want to use tools like the validator
with new backwards compatible content.  For that it would help
to split the legacy module into "cruft", stuff that's really
unnecessary for content created today, and the rest, (arguably)
necessary for legacy browsers.

The "cruft" category would cover elements and attributes like
<basefont>, <dir>, <menu>, <isindex>, <center>, <strike>, and
the face + size attributes of <font>.

In the case of <center> because <div align="center"> will do
if needed, for <strike> because <s> is good (or bad) enough.

Keeping <s>, <u>, and the color attribute of <font> in a then
"decrufted" legacy module.  For the second part of the legacy
module enumerating several attributes I'm not sure which parts
are unnecessary cruft, and what's potentially useful for new
content.

Starting to guess I'd say that background for <body> is cruft,
compact="compact" for <dl>, and several others, but not all.

For align in <legend> I don't get the idea, that's used with
the forms module.  The forms module cannot be used together
with the basic forms module.  Legacy browsers won't support
the forms module, so why should they care about a legacy align
of <legend> ?

Would it be possible to split the legacy module in this way ?

Frank

Received on Tuesday, 1 August 2006 15:05:33 UTC