[whatwg] Clarifying the use and requirements of Data URL

[Julian Reschke]

On 18.08.2010 15:21, Peter Beverloo wrote:
> Currently the specification requires the use of Data URLs for
> canvas.toDataURL[1] and refers to usage of them a number of times as
> well[2][3].  While steps describing how to generate a Data URL are
> defined in the specification[4], they are not being referenced by the
> other occurrences.  These steps seem to be identical to the contents
> of RFC 2397[5], "The "data" URL scheme" by Larry Masinter.

I raised <http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10399>, but it 
appears Ian thinks that not citing RFC 2397 is ok.

> Next to that, the specification does not list when Data URLs should be
> supported by an User Agent. WebKit, Gecko and Presto seem to accept
> them as any resource, including locations entered via the address bar,
> while Trident only accepts Data URLs for images and scripts.

Yes. But there aren't requirements for other schemes as well, right?

> I believe the use and requirements of Data URLs in the specification
> could be clarified by:
>    - Referring to RFC 2397 for information about their composition and
> syntax *or* generalize the steps described in the form submission
> algorithm[4], so they can be applied on the entire document.
>    - Extend the accepted values of @src, @href, @action et al to
> include support for data: URLs.
> ...

Why do you think @src, @href etc need to be extended for that?

Best regards, Julian