[whatwg] several messages about HTML5

[Lachlan Hunt]

Vlad Alexander (xhtml.com) wrote:
> Thank you Ian. Just one follow-up question. You wrote:
> 
>> ...We could require editors to do this, but since nobody knows how 
>> to do it, it would be a stupid requirement. ...
> 
> Is it due to a flaw in HTML that it is difficult to build authoring 
> tools, such as WYSIWYG editors, that generate markup rich in 
> semantics, embody best-practices and can be easily used by 
> non-technical people? Since much of the content on the Web is created 
> using such authoring tools, can we ever achieve a semantically rich 
> and accessible Web?

It's not so much a flaw in HTML's design, as it is the refusal of 
popular WYSIWYG editor vendors to replace common presentational UIs, 
such as font styles and colours, with much more useful semantic UIs.  I 
don't believe it's particularly difficult to achieve.  It just requires 
thinking outside the box a little and not simply copying what typical 
word processing software has done in the past.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/