[whatwg] template element?

[Ian Hickson]

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004, fantasai wrote:
>
> The current repetition model adds four global attributes to every 
> element [...] Would it perhaps make more sense to create a <template> 
> element?

That was my original design (when I was still at the drawing-on-paper- 
napkins stage). Doesn't work, because it wouldn't solve the most common 
use case, namely, repeating table rows. It's not compatible with the CSS 
table model, and it's not compatible with the HTML table model. The former 
could maybe be fixed by changing CSS, but the latter couldn't be changed 
since parsing of HTML tables is one of the most complicated parts of HTML 
parsers today.

Note that XForms ended up with the same design, basically (attribute- 
based), for the same reason.

-- 
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