[whatwg] whatwg Digest, Vol 33, Issue 90

[Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis]

FROIDURE Nicolas wrote:
>     - 2 attributes for <textarea> : max (like other fields) and type
> (to specify a text mime type for the content edition bbcode, html,
> xhtml, xbbcode etc...). It will be a good way to improve the quality
> of the web by improving the quality of user interventions.

Already done, see maxlength and type at:

http://www.w3.org/TR/web-forms-2/#extensions1

Although as I've pointed out before, MIME types are not a sufficiently
specific tool: they don't differentiate between different versions of
HTML, can't suggest microformats, can't differentiate between full
documents and fragments, and so forth. Also BBCode, XBBCode, and the
various Wiki dialects don't even have MIME type. (Mind you, WHATWG could
actually submit some MIME type registrations to make type work a bit
better for the real web.)  So this area still desperately needs more
work.

>     - 1 attribute for <input> : autocomplete (it exists in XUL, a
> value could be an URL to load when some contain is typed).

Autocomplete already exists as an security attribute for banks to use
and browser developers not to implement: 

http://www.w3.org/TR/web-forms-2/#the-autocomplete

(Well, it works in Safari and OmniWeb which can subvert nonce-based
methods of preventing the autofilling of passwords.)

However, the autocompletion functionality you're talking about is
essentially provided by:

http://www.w3.org/TR/web-forms-2/#the-datalist

and

http://www.w3.org/Submission/web-forms2/#fetching-data

>     - 1 attribute for code : type.

Not done really. One option would be to add microformats to the Wiki for
different languages, I suppose. If you were to do so, I suggest
including version numbers. PHP4 should not necessarily be highlighted
the same as PHP5. Otherwise one might as well use type and MIME types,
just as for <script/>, although I suspect many languages lack MIME
types.

>     - maybe an attribute for em and strong. Something like "degree"
> and a numeric value to notice the emphase degree of the sentences.
> 
Whenever this semantic problem is raised, two alternatives are proposed:
either add an attribute to <em/> and <strong/> or specify the semantic
meaning of nesting <em/> and <strong/>. Web Applications 1.0 currently
goes for the second option:

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-em

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-strong

Question for the editor: how many <em/> equal one <strong/>?

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis