[html4all] Issue-tracker Issues and XHTML2

[Robert J Burns]

Hi Gregory,

I've been working on cleaning up the wiki pages for the issues you  
added to the issue tracker for me (and the others I still have in the  
queue). It occurred to me that many of these issues could be applied  
to XHTML2 as well. I have others not yet on the wiki that only apply  
to HTML5 (on parsing for instance), but these ones already on the wiki  
certainly relate to XHTML2 also.

I've included the original list at the end of this email. A few of  
them might involve too much implementation detail that, in contrast to  
XHTML2, HTML5 welcomes (e.g., DOM specifications and client-side  
redirects).  But all in all I think they might be of interest to the  
XHTML2 WG too. Its also likely that some of these issues would belong  
in their own separate WGs if it wasn't for the HTML5 monolithic  
approach to standards specification.

In any event, if you want to pass on these issues to that WG for  
review, I'd love to hear feedback from a more scholarly WG.

Take care,
Rob

Below are the proposed issue-tracker Issues (with endnotes referencing  
the relevant wiki page):

• Add a document authoring requirement to designate role for embedded  
content. To ease the burden on authoring tools and authors, and to  
provide further information for  UAs and users unable to consume non- 
text media provide an attribute and HTML specified attribute NCNames  
for designating the role of non-text media.[1]

• For Q (quotation) and BLOCKQUOTE a 'marks' content markup attribute.  
Permits authors greater control over the separation of concerns of  
styling quotations and specifying the semantics of quotations within a  
document. Also allows authors to work around the current state of  
interoperability across popular UAs.[2]

• Enhanced client-side Image Maps. Provide more complete specification  
of client-side image maps to improve accessibility and general  
usability and also entirely eliminate the need for server-side image  
map processing.[3]

• Markup support for bookmark and clipping support of documents.  
Provides a way to markup specific points within a document or  
contiguous sections of a document that may not be hierarchically well- 
formed (such as the pages of an archival document that may contain  
portions of a paragraph).[4]

• Pronunciation attributes for abbreviations, variables, proper nouns  
and terms. Adds phonetic and related pronunciation attributes for DFN,  
ABBR, VAR and proper names. Adds a phonetic attribute to several  
elements as well as type and expressedas attributes to the ABBR  
element.[5]

• Cross-referencing and subtext. To provide semantic features in  
HTML5  supporting proposed styling features in CSS3 and because  
authors have  an independent need to markup notes and cross references  
regardless of  presentation.[6]

• Markup improvements and UA norms to associate attributions,  
citations, quotations and references. Adds some attributes for pages,  
annotations and ordered and unordered reference lists and UA norms to  
retrieve and display attribution, citation and quotation, references  
to users (including auto-generation of source reference lists)[7]

• Definitions and Abbreviations cross-referencing. Provide a more  
complete and compact markup syntax for associating definitions, terms,  
variables, proper names and abbreviated forms. Also promote greater  
user enhancements within UA implementations for such semantics by  
automatically generating document subject and name indexes, glossaries  
and interactive UI for these semantics.[8]

• Support for eliminating authoring distinctions between block and non- 
block semantics (particularly within the HTML5 DOM and XML  
serialization, but perhaps also in text/html serialization) Proposal  
would allow authors to use only Q element and not need to worry about  
Q and BLOCKQUOTE distinctions (also could apply to CODE and BLOCKCODE  
if HTML5 adopted these semantics).[9]

• Add a new IDENT data type for the id attribute and clearly specify  
the CSS selector and DOM method processing for xml:id of type ID and  
id of type IDENT (helps facilitate compound documents and current  
authoring practice).[10]

• CSS and DOM support  and new UA norms for associating data cells and  
header cells in tables.[11]

• Meta and HTTP redirect UA norm to improve accessibility and general  
usability.[12]

• Add MediaElement, VIDEO and AUDIO related features to the OBJECT  
element.[13]

• UAs should provide rich UI to access document data (title, href,  
cite, longdesc, aria-describedby, alt, ).[14]

• Support for a new cascading keyboard key binding mechanism.[15]

• Menu commands in the menu bar providing author access for arranging  
ordered menu bar menus (for better web application support).[16]

• Mechanism for expressing the semantics of styling (e.g., "[red  
letters] indicate [the words of Jesus]").[17]

• New attributes for handling and downloading linked and embedded  
resources.[18]

• ALT element or alternate list and other new mechanisms for  
delivering alternate content to users (in addition to content  
negotiation and rel='alternate' on the LINK and A elements).[19]

• UA language content-negotiation norms (presenting users with choices  
for multilingual users and whenever appropriate).[20]

• UA norm for DOM API to return the element containing the script and  
a re-implementation of document.write using this method.[21]

• UA norm to expose the metadata properties of non-text media.[22]

Links:
[1]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/EmbeddedContentRoleAndEquivalents>
[2]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/AddedAttributeQuotationMarks>
[3]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/ImageMapIssues>
[4]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/ClipBookmark>
[5]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/PronunciationSemantics>
[6]:  <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/Subtext>
[7]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/AttrtibuCitaQuotationReferencing>
[8]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/DefiningTermsEtc>
[9]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/QuotationBlockVInline>
[10]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/IdAndTypeID>
[11]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/DOM%2BUANormForTableHeadings>
[12]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/RedirectNorm>
[13]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/SpatialTemporalAudible>
[14]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/RicherUIAccessToHTMLData>
[15]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/KeyBindingMarkup>
[16]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/AuthorAccessToMenuBarForCommands>
[17]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/SemanticPresentationLegendCSS>
[18]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/LinkAndEmbeddingAttributes>
[19]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/ABetterAlt>
[20]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/ContentNegotiationNorms>
[21]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/NewDocument.WriteSpec>
[22]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/UANormAndDOMForMediaPropeties>