Re: ISSUE-76: Need feedback on splitting Microdata into separate specification

> On Oct 14, 2009, at 18:45, Manu Sporny wrote:
>
> > 2. Ensuring that all normative references to RDFa and Microdata are
> >   removed from the HTML5 specification:
> >
> >   http://html5.digitalbazaar.com/specs/html5-nosemantics.html
>
> I think you mean removing normative references to Microdata. It's  
> rather misleading to suggest you are removing normative references to  
> RDFa when there are none to begin with.


What's good for one, will be good for the other.


>
> > * Having the RDFa and Microdata specification separate from the HTML5
> > specification will allow those technologies to evolve independently  
> > from
> > HTML5 (after REC).
>
> I don't think Microdata needs to be split for this reason. If it  
> really turns out there's a need to update Microdata before the  
> bureaucracy cycle makes updating HTML itself feasible, that bridge can  
> be crossed when/if we get there by publishing a delta spec then.
>
> I don't support the removal of Microdata from HTML5 and I don't  
> support the inclusion of RDFa in HTML5. This is because I think they  
> aren't equally good choices for the Web.
>


Again, this is based on opinion. Some would disagree. Should it then be 
that we ignore the one specification in favor of another, just because 
some people prefer the one over the other? That's fine if HTML5 were 
only targeted to one specific group of people, but HTML5 has to serve a 
much larger community.

I can understand that the Microdata supporters feels that Microdata 
needs the additional nurturing of existence within the specification, 
because it won't survive if it were separated into a separate 
specification. If anything, such concerns should force us into 
questioning its existence, if our interests were focused primarily on 
serving a broader audience.

The HTML5 specification is too large, and too complex. We should be 
focused on trimming the specification, sharpening its focus, cutting out 
what absolutely does not have to be in the specification.

Removing Microdata does not harm Microdata, unless you believe that 
doing so would undermine interest in Microdata, in which case you have 
to look, hard, at your defense of it. Removing the Microdata section 
does not harm the HTML5 specification--if anything it's one less section 
in an already bloated specification.

> -- 
> Henri Sivonen

Shelley

Received on Thursday, 15 October 2009 13:03:13 UTC