[whatwg] RDFa

[Ian Hickson]

On Tue, 9 Sep 2008, Ben Adida wrote:
> Ian Hickson wrote:
> > Note however that I do not expect the namespace issue to materially affect 
> > the RDFa feedback; I'm sure there are many ways of addressing the problem 
> > space of RDF that do not involve having to use namespace prefixes.
> 
> You would be incorrect to make this assumption.
>
> Much work has already been done on RDFa in XHTML1.1, and to have the 
> HTML5 approach do something completely incompatible would be a serious 
> problem.

Unless it is expected that RDFa usage in XHTML 1.1 is going to be higher 
than whatever we put into HTML5, losses from incompatibility can be offset 
by gains in usability. Naturally though, we shouldn't 


> In general, I find it surprising that HTML5 wants to reinvent 
> everything, rather than at least partially rely on work done in other 
> groups.

We don't want to reinvent everything. Indeed, the vast majority of the 
features in HTML5 are merely defining in more detail features that 
existing prior to HTML5, or are reusing existing standards in conjunction 
with minimal new syntax or API surface area.

With the RDFa feedback, I have yet to carefully study the requirements and 
proposals, so I cannot say if there is an existing solution that can just 
be reused wholesale. Certainly, existing technologies must inform whatever 
decisions we make; however, we have a responsibility to specify designs 
that are as technically sound and as usable as we are able to make them.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'