This is a work in progress. Areas of interest but not yet commented on are listed at the bottom under Sections under Review
The comments provided relate to the Editors Draft of the Day and are of three types
The comments are categorised by the section or topic and include:
links to the author's comments posted to the HTML5 WG Public Mailing List & www-smil@w3.org (*SMIL)
comments on the content of the editors draft of the day
suggested rewording for clarity (implicitly reflects the interpretation of existing wording of the draft of the day)
Img/Video/Audio MetadataImage with longdesc (try mouseover and check properties with right click):
The Menu Facility - Target Date for completion of review 5 October 2007
Comments on POEM/Extensibility/Not reinventing the wheel/presentation/scripts Need
Object/Video/Media - Target Date for completion 12 October 2007
These comments are based on the 25 September 2007 Editors Draft provided at HTML5. It should be noted that at the time these comments were made, the Editors draft was undergoing frequent revision and may have been superseded.
These comments also draw on and reference discussions in which the author participated and those prior to her joining the working group. Reflecting on the difficulty with the Principles perhaps a section describing the Architectural Framework and Assumptions for HTML5 would be useful.
This idea was previously canvassed on the public mailing list in 2007JanMar/0623.html
It is touched upon in the Scope section which discusses the HTML5 relationship to HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, DOM2 HTML, XHTML2, XUL, Flash, Silverlight, and other proprietary UI languages. Though discussion of FORMs and CSS and XML, which would probably help authors with positioning/correctly choosing between XML and HTML is only touched upon later in the Specification.
Architecture has been a recurring theme on the public mailing list, see 2007Aug/0677 2007Jul/1098 2007Jul/0895 2007Jul/0719 2007Jun/0898 2007May/0582 2007May/0440 2007May/0093 including on Accessibility Architecture /2007Jun/0572 and 2007Sep/0344.
Should some reference also be made in a section discussion XML, to particular applications of XML which have been widely adopted on the web - RSS being and obvious example and been raised before 2007JanMar/0669
The discussion of the DOM should be in relation to how HTML5 uses/relies on it and any limitations it imposes on HTML(web documents) and the version to be supported
It may also be useful to introduce a broad category of "Reader" to complement the "Author". Leading to conformance for categories of Reading and Authoring Tools.
Linking the discussion on Principles, it seems that "PROVISION OF FALLBACK" is meant and should replace DEGRADE GRACEFULLY in the principles 2007JanMar/0281 and as I suggested previously the examples of SUPPORTING EXISTING CONTENT is really an application of DEGRADE GRACEFULLY. See 2007Sep/0342 and 2007Sep/0414
Abstract
This specification defines the 5th major revision of HTML, the core language of the World Wide Web. In this revision, new features are introduced to help authors to write interactive Applications and formalise prevailing practices. Special attention has also been given to defining conformance criteria for Authoring and Reading Tools (user agents) to improve the level of consistency in the handling of Documents.
Introduction
HTML was originally designed for semantically describing scientific documents. However, its general design and adaptations and the ubiquity of the World Wide Web has lead to HTML being used to describe other types of documents.In the 4th Iteration of HTML, features that described how a document should be presented were extracted and defined in the CSS(?).
The ubiquity of the World Wide Web has lead to its use as a platform for Interactive Applications - Web Applications. This 5th revision of HTML incorporates features to help in development of Web Applications, while also addressing issues, that have come to light in recent years, with HTML4.
Scope
1.1.1 Relationship to HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, DOM2 HTML
Add CSS to list and state something along the lines of- "An HTML 5 will rely on CSS for the description of the Presentation" - see posting/discussion at Re: "presentation concerns" out of scope? (detailed review of section 1. Introduction) (Friday, 31 August)
1.2. Structure of this specification
This section seems to attempt to define what is contained in each of the subsequent sections - though these seem to have changed. It would be useful if this section describes broadly what is covered in each and possibly why the specification has been structure in this way.
1.3 Conformance
see posting Re: HDP: Revised "Support Existing Content" PrincipleMarghanita da Cruz
See Posting: Is there a WIKI of test cases? Re: User Testing of Accessiblity Features(Thursday, 30 August).
Provide list of Conformance Categories and criteria/description of each
1.4.1. HTML, XHTML and XML
HTML5 provides some APIs for interacting with in-memory representations of resources. The in-memory representation is known as "DOM5 HTML", or "the DOM" for short.
There are various syntaxes that can be used to transmit resources that use HTML5, two are defined in this specification.
The first, HTML5 is designed to be compatible with legacy Web browsers. If a document is transmitted with an HTML MIME type "text/html", then Web Browsers should process it as an "HTML" document.
The second, XHTML5 uses XML. When a document is transmitted with an XML MIME type, such as application/xhtml+xml, then Web Browsers should process it as an XML document.
Authors should be aware that XML has much stricter syntax ruless than XHTML5. This means that it should not degrade gracefully and is consequently not well suited for use on the Web where the wide range of Readers (User Agents) expect HTML. However, there are widely adopted XML standard document definitions such as the RSS feeds which
DOM5HTML, HTML5, and XHTML5 cannot describe the same document. To illustrate this, namespaces cannot be described in HTML5, but can in DOM5HTML or XHTML5; documents that use the noscript feature can be described in HTML5, but not in XHTML5 or DOM5HTML; and Comments that contain the string "-->" can be described in DOM5HTML but not in HTML5 or XHTML5.
2. The Document Object Model
This section needs to focus more on the relationship between HTML5 and the DOM and perhaps identify shortcomings. Maybe create a new subsections 1.5 The DOM and 1.6 CSS in the previous section
3. Semantics and structure of HTML elements
Is it possible to reference 4.01 where elements are not going to change.
3.2.2. Boolean attributes
This and subsequent section seems to cover multiple topics - general attributes and specific attributes, conformance - it would be useful to rationalise - under conforming behaviour, conforming specification etc.
Offline Web Apps use of HTML
The Document Object Model - Target Date for completion 26 October 2007
Other areas yet to be identified
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