[html4all] Issues for the Issue-tracker

[Robert J Burns]

Hello Gregory and 4all,

I'm starting to make some progress on the issue tracker items I spoke  
about earlier. My list has grown to about 30 some items. Many of these  
I feel should get into the draft sooner rather than later so that we  
can start to get feedback from implementations in the same way  
implementations are already anxiously adding preliminary experimental  
support for the video element for example.

Also since some of these issues involve the introduction of new  
elements (something I would try to avoid for greater compatibility  
with legacy browsers), the earlier they appear in the draft of the  
HTML5 recommendation, the greater potential legacy support they may  
have[1][2]. After all, unlike the video element, UAs merely need to  
add these to the appropriate list in their parsing implementations to  
ensure something like the 'subtext' element (if that's what it gets  
called in the draft)[3] is parsed into the DOM in the same way as a  
<span> element (thus requiring only author stylesheet for graceful  
legacy degradation).

So I want to send each issue to Gregory and to the HTMl4All list as a  
separate email so that it can be discussed here as Gregory adds it to  
the issue-tracker and hopefully get discussed and advocated for at the  
teleconferences that I will no doubt be unable to attend. Many of  
these issues deal directly with accessibility, but some deal  
indirectly with accessibility and instead deal more directly with  
general authoring, semantics, and other issues we've discussed  
previously. Nevertheless, I hope to find support for them within this  
group.

Laura had previously suggested attaching  action items to these issues  
to ensure they get proper consideration. As I said earlier, I do not  
think I can attend the teleconferences, but I would be happy to accept  
assignments to draft corresponding language for the HTML  
recommendation for any of these newly raised issues.

A few Issues to follow — each in their own message — with more in the  
pipeline.

Take care,
Rob



[1]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/ThoughtExperimentInGracefulDegradation 
 >
[2]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/DefinitionCompatibility>
[3]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/Subtext>