Re: Semicolon after entities

Tina Holmboe wrote:

> In other words the WG is to study, and document, both good and bad
> practices of browsers and authors today, and tailor the specification
> to allow them?
>
> It is difficult to conclude otherwise, since you yourself admit that
> most of what IS out there is "extremely broken HTML". The idea, then,
> become that the WG will simply make the bad the good and that's that?
>
> Much markup on the web today /is/ poor. We /do not/ fix that by
> redefining reality to make it /good/.

I think it's important to realize that HTML5 is a bundle of several
kinds of conformance profiles -- browsers, to be conformant, must
support interoperable error handling in the face of strange input. But
this is orthogonal to the conformance requirements placed on authors.

For instance, suppose that for reasons of interoperability & not
breaking the web the <tt> element must be supported by browsers (default
rendering with a monospaced font, etc.). It would be entirely reasonable
to simultaneously require authors to not use this element, for whatever
reason -- it's purely presentational, etc.

I think much of your disagreement with Lachlan, Tina, is that sometimes
these separate and separable conformance classes are being confused in
the heat of the moment.


Ted

-- 
Edward O'Connor
hober0@gmail.com

Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem.

Received on Monday, 30 April 2007 17:47:27 UTC