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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-US
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>The exact syntax for the attribute
should depend on the script type. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-US
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>It can be PythON for
Python (I do not know Python at all but I assume it is possible) and LispON for
Lisp.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-US
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>(as client side Lisp is
my personal dream)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-US
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Chris<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-US
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
whatwg-bounces@lists.whatwg.org [mailto:whatwg-bounces@lists.whatwg.org] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Jon Barnett<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, April 11, 2007
2:39 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> Anne van Kesteren<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Cc:</span></b> WHAT working group; ddailey;
Maciej Stachowiak; Simon Pieters; Henri Sivonen; Sam Ruby<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [whatwg] Attribute
for holding private data for scripting</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;
margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0cm'>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>If you want structured data in this attribute, why not just use JSON?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
That's an idea that crossed my mind as well. I dismissed it for a few
reasons: <br>
- authors would have to entitize quotes and ampersands in their attributes,
which they're not used to doing with JSON normally.<br>
- evaluating it would mean:<br>
var obj = eval(myelement.getAttribute("_myjson"); <br>
which I don't like because I prefer to avoid eval at all costs.<br>
- it further marries HTML with JavaScript, which is something I'd like to see
evolve and change in the future - something else widely supported, like
client-side Python is a personal dream. Also, whatever attribute also
needs to have meaning (read: be easy to get to in the DOM) when your document
is processed by something other than a browser, such as PHP or Java. <br>
<br>
You, yourself, could still format your custom data that way, but I don't think
it's a great idea to spec it that way. And I guess it's already been said
that changing something in the DOM a good idea for this. <br>
<br>
We just want to allow authors to continue to do something authors already do
without making validators complain.<br>
<br>
The idea of allowing just any attribute that starts with _ (or x_) has
the best benefit - authors already do it, it's just a matter of making
validators not complain. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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