[MathML3] xml:id versus id

Hi,

I noticed MathML 3.0 is using the xml:id attribute instead of the id  
attribute. In the attribute appendix there is still mention of the id  
attribute but that appears to be a typo in section 3.2.7.2. Given that  
MathML is using the same namespace and seems to adher to the same  
principles as other Web languages, such as HTML and CSS, this backwards  
incompatible change strikes me as somewhat weird. Especially since no  
rationale seems to be provided in the draft.

If there was a concern that without a DTD the id attribute would no longer  
be of type ID I'd like to point out that even without DTDs you can still  
declare such attributes to be of type ID. This is what XBL 2.0 has done,  
for instance. And how the id attribute works in XHTML5 which is defined  
alongside HTML5 in the HTML 5 draft specification.

I would like to request that the MathML Working Group reverses this  
decision. Besides making MathML more compatible with previous versions it  
would also make it more compatible with the HTML serialization of MathML  
as is being discussed in the HTML WG.

Kind regards,


-- 
Anne van Kesteren
<http://annevankesteren.nl/>
<http://www.opera.com/>

Received on Thursday, 10 April 2008 11:59:33 UTC