[html4all] If attribute X is dropped ... (@profile etc)

[Leif Halvard Silli]

If @profile is dropped, then simply breaking the HTML 5 standard, or 
using another standard is some of the things which the (until recently) 
Working Group Chair Dan see as possibilities [1]:
> Possibilities I see include:
> * GRDDL implementations add support for rel="profile" along with HTML 
> 5 concrete syntax.
> * GRDDL implementors don't change their code, so people who want to 
> use GRDDL with HTML 5 features such as <video> stick to XML-wf-happy 
> HTML 5 syntax and they use the head/@profile attribute anyway, despite 
> what the HTML 5 spec says.
> * People who want to use GRDDL stick to XHTML 1.x.
> * People who want to put data in their HTML documents use RDFa.
>
> I don't particularly care for the rel="profile" design, but one should 
> choose ones battles and I'm not inclined to choose this one. I'm 
> content for the market to choose.

When *he* mentions breaking the standard/using another one, then it is 
quite telling.

Compare what Ian told Laura recently [2]:

>> Use the tools/services and let them be nonconforming.
>

> It makes no sense for the specification to advise someone to not 
> conform to the specification. [...] If something is not allowed, then
> it should never be done.


When the (former) Working Group Chair is saying that "there is also the 
option to not be conforming to the standard", then I feel tempted to use 
Ian's words as argument for keeping @profile.

I hope you see some quite obvious links to the accessibility attributes 
in the above. Hence let us support @profile in the Working Group. (I had 
the impression from the Telcon minutes that the WG will be asked to make 
a decision on @profile soon.)

[1] http://www.w3.org/QA/2008/08/the_details_of_data_in_documen.html
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2008Aug/0611.html
-- 
leif halvard silli