[whatwg] [wf2] Restrict template attributes to only fieldset, tr, and li?

dolphinling dolphinling at myrealbox.com
Mon Dec 12 08:32:41 PST 2005


Anne van Kesteren wrote:
> Quoting dolphinling <dolphinling at myrealbox.com>:
> 
>> Okay, it still bugs me that template attributes apply to all elements 
>> when I think they should only apply to fieldsets. I do realize though 
>> that because of backwards compatibility and because in current 
>> browsers there are places fieldset can't go, this is impossible.
>>
>> However, could it be made so the template attributes only apply to 
>> fieldsets and wherever else they need to because of current parsing, 
>> as opposed to all elements?
>>
>> I believe this would mean it applied to fieldset, tr, and li (and 
>> perhaps td, though that would be a strange thing to do).
> 
> 
> What is the reasoning? I think it is very useful that they apply to every
> element, including non-XHTML elements.

Because they're form attributes, they have no relation to anything 
except forms. Semantically, there's no reason they *should* apply to any 
non-form elements.

If HTML were namespaced, I would say that form elements should be in 
their own namespace. Application UI (which is what forms are) is useful 
in places other than just HTML documents, and the split between 
documents and application UI is more than enough to give them each their 
own namespace. Even though HTML isn't namespaced, they still should be 
split as much as possible.

Additionally, because of the nature of repetition groups, fieldset 
semantics are _always_ appropriate.

-- 
dolphinling
<http://dolphinling.net/>



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