[whatwg] New HTML5 spec-editing tools released

[Manu Sporny]

Joe D Williams wrote:
>> http://wiki.github.com/html5/spec
>
> I think this is really great, Manu. However, I think it needs the mode
> where only the new stuff is provided. That is, content that is identical
> to the main spec is just not really a factor is evaluating added or
> revised, or changed material. I think the main button for showing
> candidate text should be that just the new/revised is shown.

You're right - we do need an easy and automatic mechanism to create
diffs between specs in the new HTML5 spec-editing tools. I was
eventually going to coordinate with W3C staff to use their HTML diffing
marking program (since they do this on a regular basis). There seems to
be a variety of programs out there to perform HTML diffs:

http://esw.w3.org/topic/HtmlDiff

> in which, essentially, only the replacement text is shown. That may be
> an old way to do it, but it provides focus for the reviewer who is
> familiar with the rest of the document. Then, when the candidate is
> approved, if everything ishooked in, the editors might well choose to
> use the process you describe here to publish a complete current draft.

Other things that we could do to make the reviewing process easier:

* Generate very focused HTML diffs, showing only what changed and hiding
everything that didn't change. Give minimal context (1-4 paragraphs at
most), highlight terms.
* Provide a "jump-to-next/previous-change" button/index

Thanks for the feedback, Joe - I'll try to put something together that
provides automatic diffs during the coming weeks.

-- manu


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Manu Sporny (skype: msporny) (twitter: manusporny)
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