[whatwg] Answering the question... (timing of table headers issue)

[Dan Connolly]

On Thu, 2007-08-23 at 10:40 -0700, John Foliot wrote:
> [...] Despite protracted discussion (argument?) and a
> formal submission from the WAI PF regarding the requirement of headers for
> complicated tables on June 6, 2007
> [http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Jun/0145.html], the
> "official" word from  Ian Hickson is that they've "not yet looked at them".
> 
> What more needs to be looked at?  Our community provided research, rationale
> and worked within the system (and the system's rules) in response to this
> issue, yet it is still deemed open or unresolved.  It is *exactly* this kind
> of response/reaction that many such as myself are frustrated with.  This
> issue should be resolved - now.

I sympathize with your frustration, but I ask that you remain
patient.

I am in regular communication with Al Gilman about that June 6 message.
He understands that it may be some weeks/months before the HTML WG
has a considered response. (I think I just missed you yesterday, Al.)


The current priorities of this group,
as noted in the "Current Events" section of
our homepage http://www.w3.org/html/wg/#current

 1. design principles
 2. initial reviews of the HTML 5 spec

These initial reviews are breadth-first; the goal is to raise
issues and awareness, but not to fully address all the issues
that come up, just yet.

I tried putting something else ahead of design principles,
namely a "differences between HTML 4 and HTML 5" document,
but there were formal objections that appealed to the
"What should the HTML WG publish first?" survey
  http://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/40318/wd7/results
which put the design principles ahead of the
spec, 34 to 25.

The back-log of comments on HTML specs goes back a lot
further than June of this year. In May, the editors
asked for a few months to deal with a backlog of
a few years of WHATWG feedback. It has now been a few
months, and I'm starting to re-negotiate priorities
with the editors.

But keep in mind that we have, so far, made *no* design
decisions. We haven't decided that HTML 5 will have a p element.
Before we address subtle issues like the table headers issue,
first we should deal with the fact that we're about 3
months overdue for releasing anything on http://www.w3.org/TR/
for community review by finishing the current round of discussion
on design principles. Then I think we should tackle a few
no-brainer technical issues just to get a feel for the process.
And then we'll decide about table headers and that sort of thing.

I appreciate the testing and research that is going on meanwhile.
That's an essential part of quality design decision-making.

I recommend teleconferences as a good way to get a feel for
group priorities and schedule. For example, we talked
about the timing of this table headers issue last week.
  http://www.w3.org/2007/08/16-html-wg-minutes#item05



-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/