[whatwg] <progress> draft

[Michael 'Ratt' Iannarelli]

Greetings,

With the meter element I am not convinced that there is a need for a 
progress element. Considering this definition of meter...

1. Any of various devices designed to measure time, distance, speed, or 
intensity or indicate and record or regulate the amount or volume, as of 
the flow of a gas or an electric current.[1]

...certainly a meter could measure progress.

|	<meter value="43" max="58">Pages Translated: 43 of 58.</meter>

Having two elements that represent pretty much the same thing, (a 
progress bar is a type of meter after all), is redundant. There are 
going to be plenty of web authors using meter for progress, (just 
because  the spec says not to ;p).

Whether the progress element stays or goes the numeric attributes for 
meter/progress should be purely floating point numbers. Supporting 
denominator punctuation characters complicates.

I find processing the textContent of a meter or progress element an 
interesting approach but to me it seems like an overly complicated way 
to determine the values of the attributes, (much like current tag soup 
processing). I would rather the page author either declare the 
attributes or have the meter or progress element default to value="0" 
and max="1".

I think we need a method to attach the meter (or progress should it 
stay) element to specific tasks. (If there is one already, I missed it.) 
Perhaps a task attribute? If the task attribute is set the element is 
indeterminate until the data needed to establish a meter/progress bar is 
received.

Keeping things simple should increase the likelihood that the element(s) 
get implemented soon.

Just my thoughts,

Michael 'Ratt' Iannarelli


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[1] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth 
Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. See 
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=meter