[whatwg] Microformats, WebApps 1.0 and UI widgets in browsers
Karl Dubost
karl at w3.org
Wed Jan 31 23:25:10 PST 2007
Just for the record,
http://ejohn.org/blog/microformats-in-firefox-3/
Open to comments and ideas.
3.
Karl Dubost, W3C Said,
February 1, 2007 @ 2:21 am
Mike,
is there a place where you collect the comments, feedback, etc?
First times are very important and lead to cool things, great
improvements and painful ties sometimes. So indeed when a browser is
proposing new UI widgets directly related to the *semantics* of
content, we have to be very careful.
At first, I say “cool, very cool!”. Then, taking a step back,
I think what about the documents which have been created for the last
15 years before microformats effort existed. These documents contain
class names which are probably and most certainly very similar to
some values defined by microformats community. So there will be
documents where a UI widget will be activated but not with the
intended meaning. Basically it is changing the contract between the
author and the reader by hijacking the intended semantics.
There /was/ a solution for this profile attribute URIs with
the URI of the used profile. Problem ahead it seems that some
developers want to suppress this attribute in HTML document.
I think there is a possible win-win here. The Mozilla UI
widget could be activated only when the right URI (profile attribute)
is really here. (a bit like the doctype switching). It will encourage
people to use the right URIs, because the effect would be immediate,
it will not hijack documents previously written. Everyone win.
PS: Another switching mechanism could be used as well if appropriate.
--
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager, QA Activity Lead
QA Weblog - http://www.w3.org/QA/
*** Be Strict To Be Cool ***
More information about the whatwg
mailing list