[whatwg] Suggestion: "context" attribute

[Martin Kutschker]

Matthew Raymond <mattraymond at earthlink.net> writes on 
Fri, 25 Jun 2004 22:16:37 +0200 (METDST):

> For clarity, I'm reposting my sample code:
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> <div id="myPopup" repeat="template">
> <p>Random popup stuff</p>
> </div>
> 
> <input type="text" value="some text" context="myPopup">
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Martin Kutschker wrote:
> > Why abuse an attribute? I like the general idea, but would
> > favour either a new element instead of div or another new
> > attribute.
> 
> And exactly how would that work? Like this?:
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> <popup id="myPopup">
> <p>Random popup stuff</p>
> </popup>
> 
> <haspopup value="myPopup">
> <input type="text" value="some text">
> </haspopup>
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------


No:

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

<div id="myPopup" popup="popup">
<p>Random popup stuff</p>
</div>

> 
> <input type="text" value="some text" context="myPopup">


<input type="text" value="some text" context="myPopup">

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

I've had no problems with "context". But I'm stricly against rehashing elements or attributes. Especially if it's semantically an abuse.


> I have the following problems with this approach:
> 
> 1) If you avoid the WF2 template model, it requires new two new tags,
> not one, as you can see.


I said that replacing diff *might* be an alternative.


> The repeat attribute already exists in WF2,
> so why not use it?


Because it was not meant for this and 'repeat="tenplate"' makes abosultely no sense for a popup. The naming is confusing.



> 2) It doesn't fix any of the problems from my previous example. The 
> content inside the tag is still rendered in legacy UAs. Worse, at
> least with a <div> you could set the CSS property "display" to "none".


Well, Mozilla can handle unnown tags :-) But you're right introducing elements shouldn't be done light heartedly.


> 4) The context attribute already exists in XUL, and my solution only 
> adds a single attribute. Why is this single attribute, which takes 
> advantage of a preexisting WF2 feature, so offensive to you?


I didn't object to "context". Though I doubt if reusung a XUL attribute has any benefits. So this is the same to me:

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

<input type="text" value="some text" popupid="myPopup">

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

Masi