W3C | TAG | TAG Work Plan

Product: HTML / XML Unification

Goals

The goal of this effort is to maximize synergy, and minimize unnecessary divergence, between the XML and HTML technology stacks. Practical use cases to be addressed include the creation and processing of HTML using XML tools, the use of XML-based document fragments in the text/html serialization of HTML, maximizing the practicality and utility of "polyglot" documents, that interpret compatibly as both text/html and application/xhtml+xml, or perhaps eventually converging on a single widely deployed media type for both well formed and non-well formed html documents.

This effort was initiated at the suggestion of T.V. Raman, who expressed the opinion that the lack of synergy between the HTML and XML stacks, as they are now emerging, is unnecessary and costly in practice.

Success criteria

• The requirements and non-requirements for coordinating and integrating XML and HTML specifications, implementations etc. are correctly identified.
• Either:
  • Specific changes to specifications and implementations, identified by this effort, are successfully deployed and provide value to users...
  • ...or this effort correctly and clearly documents the reasons why in fact there is nothing further that will have good cost/benefit at this time.
  • ...and/or... documentation of important properties of the system which need to be preserved

Key deliverables with dates:

• Report on use cases from the HTML / XML unification subgroup (Date: 30 September 2011 for final version)
• Maybe: further work on particular solutions, depending on conclusions reached from the use case report.
• Complete report circulated for community review (1 February 2012)
• Final report incorporating responses to community review (Date TBD)

Schedules:

Note: a preliminary draft report was published by Norm Walsh on 22 March 2011

• 1 February 2012: Complete draft report published by the TAG for community review
• 1 April 2012: TAG achieves success criteria set out above, and identifies further goals and next steps, if any (note, this date was moved by the chair to correspond to the February draft publication date)

TAG Members assigned:

Tim Berners-Lee, Noah Mendelsohn

Former TAG member Norm Walsh has generously agreed to chair a subgroup, consisting of experts in XML, HTML, and with systems that use those technologies.

TAG Issues, Actions and Tracker Product Page

• ACTION-437: Create a task force on XML / HTML convergence (Tim Berners-Lee)
• ACTION-522: Build Tracker product page for HTML/XML Unification (Noah Mendelsohn)
• ISSUE-67: HTML and XML Divergence
• ACTION-655: on - Noah Mendelsohn - Check Norm Walsh draft of W3C Note with the TAG, draft cover letter to include with Note, and review that with the TAG
• ACTION-656: on - Noah Mendelsohn - Schedule discussion of possibly getting W3C to invest in technologies for liberal XML processing (e.g. XML5)
• ACTION-657: on - Noah Mendelsohn - Schedule telcon discussion of possible XML/HTML Unification next steps