[whatwg] The <keygen> element

[Ian Hickson]

On Tue, 7 Apr 2009, James Ide wrote:
> 
> Attributes are flexible if they are named generically (e.g. just 
> params=""). But as soon as they are named dsaparams="" or ecparams="", 
> UAs are somewhat precluded from adding some new algorithm XYZ because of 
> the lack of an xyzparams="" attribute.

I don't understand. Why can't we use xyzparams="" if we introduce an XYZ 
algorithm?


> In short, if it is likely that UAs will support more than just two or 
> three popular signature algorithms, it may be worthwhile to allow 
> authors to specify a name and parameters for any arbitrary algorithm. 

As we add algorithms, we would presumably add the attributes if they are 
needed.


Note that right now a browser isn't intended to just add more algorithms 
willy nilly; the list is theoretically limited to what's in the spec. If 
we were to make the list open-ended, we could just as easily allow the 
attributes to be open-ended as well.

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