[whatwg] <comment> element in HTML5 Spec?

Bruce Hyslop bruceontheloose at htmlfiver.com
Mon Dec 13 12:12:32 PST 2010


> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 11:23 AM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> One thing to note - <comment> has already been used by IE6 and earlier
>> as an alternative to the <!-- --> syntax for HTML comments. Â They
>> apparently stopped supporting this in IE7, though (I can confirm that
>> it no longer does anything special in IE8), so we probably don't have
>> to worry about it. Â No other browser does anything special for it, it
>> seems, so the compat impact is apparently small enough to be ignored.
>
> Sorry, I was using IE9 beta accidentally.  IE9 beta treats <comment>
> like an ordinary unknown element.  IE7 and IE8 both treat it like an
> HTML comment.
>
> That's probably sufficient backwards-incompatibility to kill the idea
> of using that particular name for this element.
>
> ~TJ

> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 6:49 PM, Richard Summers
> <Richard.Summers at bbc.co.uk> wrote:
>> I was
>> wondering, is there any plan to implement a <comment> element within the
>> HTML5 spec?
>
> On Mon, 2010-12-13 Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis <bhawkeslewis at googlemail.com>
wrote:
> "comment" isn't an available element name for historical reasons:
>
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms535229(v=vs.85).aspx


If it turns out the idea of having an element specific to comments does
gain traction, perhaps it could be called <feedback> instead.

- Bruce

----------------------------------------

Author, The HTML Pocket Guide (Peachpit)
(Covers HTML 4, XHTML 1, and HTML5)




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