[whatwg] Client-side includes proposal

[Jonas Sicking]

I have to say that I don't really agree with Hixie here either.

I think there is much value in letting HTML be a viable format for 
document distribution outside the web. I definitely don't think of it as 
a non-goal. Things like distributable cross-platform DVDs of wikipedia 
containing just a stack of HTML pages would be an awesome way of 
delivering part of the web to people that are "offline" (be that on an 
airplane, the Alaskan wilderness or stuck in a warzone).

That said, there is always a cost/benefit analysis to any new feature. 
And I think the benefit for a feature specifically targetted for non-web 
HTML pages is smaller, which means that we should accept only smaller costs.

In the case of client side includes I'm unconvinced benefit is worth the 
cost. Additionally there already is a standard for it called XInclude, 
so I'm not really sure what the debate is.

If UAs want to support client side include they can implement XInclude. 
If they don't, why would we add it to HTML5?

/ Jonas