Re: Script Element Processing (Was: [SVGMobile12] Question on details of when <script> elements execute)

On Fri, 11 Aug 2006, Doug Schepers wrote:
> > 
> > I'm currently writing an exhaustive specification of how this should 
> > work for HTML5, but I don't have an ETA on completion. Also, it will 
> > go into far more detail than the SVG spec generally goes, so it would 
> > probably be quite difficult to integrate neatly.
> 
> I'm assuming that the plan is for it to be compatible with existing 
> specs and implementations?

Hard to be incompatible with existing specs; here's the sum total of the 
HTML4 spec's take on the matter:

# If the src attribute is not set, user agents must interpret the contents 
# of the element as the script. If the src has a URI value, user agents 
# must ignore the element's contents and retrieve the script via the URI.

The idea is that the spec (now mostly written, by the way [1]) will be 
compatible with existing content.

[1] See:
    http://whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#scripting
    http://whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#scriptTag
    

> I think it's entirely appropriate for a dedicated spec on something like 
> script element processing to go into much more detail than a spec like 
> SVG, which is of course focused on its own subject matter.

This isn't a dedicated spec on script processing. It's a minor part of a 
spec for HTML. _I_ think it is entirely appropriate for a spec to describe 
how you implement the spec, rather than leaving critical pieces like 
timing of script execution to the whims of the first mass-market UA 
implementor, forever to have that reverse engineered by other vendors.

But I understand that the SVGWG's membership largely disagrees with this 
position.


> Thanks for all your hard work in unifying behavior across UAs.  Such 
> intensive testing is often a thankless task, but it's very worthwhile.

Thanks. Why isn't the SVG WG doing the same thing for SVG?

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Monday, 14 August 2006 07:33:21 UTC