

RE: Scope of HTML5...

From: Dailey, David P. <david.dailey@sru.edu>
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 12:53:40 -0400
Message-ID: <6FBCADEE93126744846AA99EBEF4AEB62D0810@msfexch01.srunet.sruad.edu>
To: "Charles McCathieNevile" <chaals@opera.com>, <public-html@w3.org>
Echoing some of what Chaals has said and then spinning new yarns from it, it reminds me of a long-standing uncertainty of mine, and one which HTML5 seems to have vacillated about:

What exactly should be the scope of what HTML5? To what extent does it seek to glue other specs (like accessibility, graphics, event-management, forms, scripting, DOM, intranet, e-mail and the semantic web) together? To what extent does it seek to supplant them? Such uncertainty was at the core of my early and heartfelt objections to the design principles in 2007: why force a vote on rules of the road when we haven't even figured out where the road is going?

Does, should, will the scope of HTML5 include multi-touch devices, screen readers, 3D and/or spherical displays? What is in scope and what is the purview of other standards bodies and WG's? I recall bitter discussions concerning graphics, forms, accessibility, and the semantic web, in part, because fundamental questions of what the WG is doing were understood differently by some factions than by others. The odd balance we currently find between yes and no on each of these fronts seems to have arisen as a largely unstated agreement between some large development interests concerning whose toes could and whose could not be stepped upon. In my bemused observation of these discussions over 2.5 years, I am increasingly convinced that discussions that should have taken place earlier but which were precluded from happening would actually have resolved great amounts of strife and derision had they been allowed to happen. What should the web of 2020 look like? What should it allow? What should it encourage? Instead of collaboratively building a plan, we were handed several barrels of gears, bolts, transistors and modules and asked to write a user's guide. 

In the words of a great philosopher: "nanny nanny boo boo."


-----Original Message-----
On Friday, August 07, 2009 10:15 AM
Chaals wrote:
>As I understand things, W3C is developing HTML5 as a new version of the
>language that underpins a huge amount of communication. It also underpins
>various industries, from advertising to the development of publishing
>software, browsers, information management tools, and more.
Received on Friday, 7 August 2009 16:54:36 GMT
