[whatwg] Feedbacl

[Ian Hickson]

On Tue, 9 Jun 2009, Mike Weissenborn wrote:
> 
> 1) I've usedframes in many web pages, and I see this is being dropped.  
> I typically have a selection frame and a result frame.  So links clicked 
> on in the 1st frame show up in the second frame.  I then never have to 
> worry about managing what's in each frame.  For many pages I can likely 
> use a block element like a DIV, but my ISP has size limitations and I 
> have spread my pages onto several sites.  I have no problems switching 
> to something else but I didn't see anything in the specs except opening 
> a new window to accomplish this.  If something else is being used, how 
> will this be compatible with older browsers.

Only <frameset> and <frame> are obsoleted; you can still use <iframe> for 
this. It works more or less the same, except you use CSS to position the 
iframe.


> 2) I am perhaps one of the few I know to use Xforms and I am excited 
> about being able to have like capabilities in all browsers.  The 
> implementation image I saw looked somewhat different and didn't really 
> describe what new, changed or obsolete.  Personally I want the same 
> capabilities of Xforms; being able to save locally, FTP. or URL and this 
> wasn't really identified.  I don't mind having to make change, I just 
> want it to work.

HTML5 has some of XForms' features, but not all. Saving locally, in 
particular, is not yet available. We will probably be introducing this 
feature and others at some future point, though probably in different 
forms than XForms has.


> Still on Xforms I would like additional functionality, I think you may 
> have dealt with, is being able to reformat/reorder the data via CSS or a 
> datagrid to a format the user wishes the data to be viewwed in.  
> Obviously this may be define via code, but I'm hoping the WebForms 
> implementation will allow for things such as sortable columns,, re-order 
> columns, hide/show columns...

<datagrid> is being redesigned (for a third time), but in general yes, 
those features should be available, either in the first version or in a 
subsequent version soon after.


> I don't know if the subject of data binding has ever come up.  I like 
> the data binding in IE, however other browsers don't support this 
> ability and I have to use binding in IE and Xforms for firefox.  I would 
> really benifit from being able to use the same code for both.  I did 
> notice a Local Storage componenet, which I hope some consistent client 
> call can be done to Post or Sync these to a URL...

You can reimplement data binding from JS, but there are no plans to add a 
native data binding layer at this point. The feature in IE was never 
really used much, and there hasn't been much demand for it in HTML5.


> 3) Xforms or not, I hope anything displayable can be formated 
> appropriately using CSS.  There seems to be many browser specific 
> formating settings, is there a way to consolidate these with this 
> release to iliminate or reduce browse specific CSS settings.

HTML5 attempts to coordinate all the various CSS behaviours of browsers, 
so hopefully this will become better with time.


> 4) not being able to implement #3, somehow within CSS it would then be 
> nice to be able have some type of IF statement so additional CSS can be 
> included or excluded for non-complient browsers...  Even down the road, 
> the ability to include/exclude imports based on broweser capabilities 
> could benifit many.  Unless defined, browser builders will continue to 
> build there own settings.  Im sure this is out of your control, but 
> perhaps an IF isn't.  I hate the idea of having to create a different 
> presentation based on the browser, but how does one ever ensure someones 
> browser is compatable or the content is dsiplayed appropriately.
> 5) On the CSS, I'm sure builders/browser developer would love an XML 
> format.  If there are no CSS format changes perhaps this can be 
> identified as a future enhancement/direction.  CSS seems to be areal 
> oddball format compared to everything else.

I encourage you to raise such requests with the CSS working group.


> 6)  I did see some comment about user defined variables in the FAQ.  I 
> see no reason why if enbed something called <MIKE> in an html file and 
> the CSS attributes should handle whatever needs to be displayed in 
> whatever format.  No CSS=No display.  The same as it works now..

I'm not sure I understand your proposal here. Doesn't the class="" 
attribute handle this case adequately?

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