[whatwg] Fwd: Make quoted attributes a conformance criterion

Jeremy Keith jeremy at adactio.com
Mon Jul 27 03:29:05 PDT 2009


Maciej wrote:
> So, in conclusion, having a baseline for correct syntax may actually  
> make it easier to develop an ecosystem of style-checking tools.  
> However, this makes it important to keep the core set of syntax  
> errors relatively minimal. I'm not sure HTML5 as currently drafted  
> entirely hits that balance, but mandating optional tags or requiring  
> double quotes on attributes would be a move in the wrong direction.

I concur. And I say that as someone who likes the XHTML-like syntax  
(always closing tags, always quoting attributes, etc.). I don't think  
my personal preference for writing markup should be enforced in the  
spec; it should be enforced in the lint tools.

The comparison with JavaScript is a good one, I think:
> JavaScript, C and C++ are examples of languages where conforming  
> syntax is strictly defined, yet tools are available that do  
> additional static analysis for both style and correctness.

Jeremy

-- 
Jeremy Keith

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