Re: HTML ID case question

[ Excessive quoting to preserve context ]

On 12.07.01 at 13:19, Steven Pemberton <steven.pemberton@cwi.nl> wrote:

>Terje Bless <link@tss.no> wrote:
>
>>I would suggest a note to the effect that "This makes no sense
>>whatsoever; don't worry about it or you'll get a migraine" in relevant
>>parts of the spec; if it isn't possible to disambiguate the rules in a
>>proper fashion.
>
>Actually it does make sense, as Jonny pointed out. It was a very
>reasonable solution to a sticky problem: two non-interoperating browsers,
>neither of whom were willing to be declared broken. The specification as
>it is now means that both browsers work identically on conforming
>documents. In brief the spec says: IDs are case-sensitive, but you are not
>allowed to write a document that depends on it.
>
>It is not the perfect solution in an ideal world, but in the world we have
>inherited, it is an elegant solution for a sticky problem.

Actually, what I meant wasn't that the definition should be altered; but
that the fact that this is a compromise, and not immediately obvious
behaviour, should be noted in relevant parts of the spec. The behaviour as
specified makes no sense unless you happen to know the historical reasons
for it and so is prone to creating misunderstandings. Short of altering the
definition, the way to clarify this is to add a note that indicates that
there is something non-obvious going on as a result of practical
considerations and that cross-references the various parts of the spec that
in combination makes up the full set of rules for ID case sensitivity.

Received on Saturday, 21 July 2001 19:49:44 UTC