[whatwg] several messages about HTML5
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen at iki.fi
Wed Feb 21 06:18:53 PST 2007
On Feb 21, 2007, at 07:14, Sander Tekelenburg wrote:
> That's not a flaw in HTML, because it is essential to HTML that it
> separates content from presentation.
I think device independence and accessibility are worthwhile goals.
Semantic markup and separation of content and style are not essential
in themselves but just a means of pursuing the other goals.
> My feeling is that many people can understand and work with that
> slightly abstract concept, but they need tools that make it easy.
People also need to believe that they benefit from thinking on a more
abstract level.
> If we can offer people 'semantic editors' that work in a 'natural'
> way, they won't have to fight.
Well, to the extent most people keep semantics implicit and only
think about presentation explicitly, reconciling "natural" with
asking them to think differently is a problem.
> But I think before that education stands a chance of making a dent,
> there'll need to be good non-WYSIWYG authoring tools.
I agree. Do you have a plan on how you are going to convince
developers to take the risk of incurring the cost of developing a new
kind of tool which may not succeed with users?
Anyway, HTML5 needs to be realistic considering the immediate
evolvability of existing tools.
P.S. This should not be considered a pro-<font> message. I think the
<font> element should be dropped and the style='' attribute should be
allowed on all elements.
--
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen at iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/
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