If you’re like me, you’ve been very concerned about the direction XHTML 2 has been heading. Very recently I’ve thought to myself that I won’t develop a commercial XHTML 2 site this decade. (Look how long it took them to get simple stuff right!) Only time will tell, but Tantek’s XHTML Considered Hopeful brings back that warm fuzzy feeling that promising new technologies give. Yes, it was going in a bad direction. Yes, it’s coming back.
I’ve lurked on www-html for several months now, maybe it’s time (and I finally have the time) to start seriously reading working draft and lend my voice to the process. That’s assuming of course I have anything cogent to say. I think the lesson to be learned here is if you’re concerned with where the spec is heading, let people know. As Tek says, they’re listening.
(My personal favorite new element so far? Gotta be <l>. Lots of possibilities there.)
I just found out the <blink> tag is not in XHTML2. I better go register my protestations 😉
Ha!
I am not a big fan of the name
<l>, because I believe it can be easily confused with the letter ‘i’ and the number ‘1’. I preferred the longer-winded<line>because it couldn’t be confused. I do think that the element itself is necessary, and semantically more appropriate than<br />.For me, the most interesting change is the introduction of
<blockcode>. Now (at last), we have a semantic structure for marking up code fragments and procedures. Perhaps, in time, CSS will be improved enough to add color-coding instructions to a<blockcode>element. How cool would that be?I can’t imagine how complicated the CSS would be to add syntax highlight to a reasonably complex language. I don’t see lowecase “l” and “i” getting mixed up too easily, perhaps an uppercase “i” would, but that’s not a problem. The number one might be more of an issue, but common sense would tell anyone that there wouldn’t be an element made up of just a number.
Simon, I dig your Star Trek theme. 🙂