[whatwg] Element level XML and XSL attributes

[Ian Hickson]

On Mon, 21 Jun 2010, Dr. Clue wrote:
>
> Having immensely enjoyed using w3.org standard XML/XSL transforms in my 
> web projects , I would really like the HTML5 spec to consider the 
> addition of two element level attributes (XML and XSL)
> 
> These two attributes would at a minimum take URLs to the respective .xml 
> and .xsl sources.
> 
> Use cases include but are not limited to tabular data browsing , charts 
> ,info graphics (SVG etc), news feeds, multi-view data, calenders and 
> miles and miles of common every day activities. If one sees integration 
> of data and presentation in an element of a page, those XML/XSL 
> attributes could handle the vast majority of it.
> 
> This should not be confused with page wide XSL references like <link 
> rel="stylesheet" href="mystylesheet.xsl"> as often these days through 
> various means , elements arrive in a page dynamically.
> 
> Currently element level XML/XSL transforms require vendor specific 
> object sniffing hacks to achieve those transforms, and having XML and 
> XSL attributes while having a main merit all their own has the added 
> benefit of eliminating the need for those hacks.
> 
> These attributes also decrease the complexity of having multiple 
> contributors collaborating on a page by allowing individual elements of 
> presentation involving data and structure to be built standalone , and 
> then integrated into any page presentation.
> 
> As an additional option it might be nice if the attributing setting 
> would allow the values to be either the typical URLs or the native 
> Javascript objects created through the browser's Javascript API, 
> although this latter aspect would simply be gravy.
> 
> Making the w3.org XML/XSL standards more accessible from HTML has an 
> amazing bounty of benefits and would be trivial for vendors to 
> implement, since the internal code is in browsers (include gasp IE) 
> going back a long long ways.
> 
> I've been wishing for these attributes to appear for years, and the 
> thought occurred to me yet again today as I embark on yet another 
> project where XML/XSL will take a primary role in keeping my data 
> separate from my presentation.

I encourage you to follow the process described in the FAQ for adding new 
features:

   http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/FAQ#Is_there_a_process_for_adding_new_features_to_a_specification.3F

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