Subject: PaceContentAsTextOrHtml underspecified

From: Ken MacLeod <[email-masked]>
Date: 29 Aug 2004 13:39:31 -0500

-1 on PaceContentAsTextOrHtml, it is seriously underspecified.

 * Is the value of @type an Internet Media Type or is the value an
   enumeration of specific labels that are confusingly similar in
   appearance to Internet Media Types?

 * What is the difference between "text/plain" and
   "application/xhtml+xml" without an element wrapper, ie:

       <title type="text/plain">An ode to the &lt;blink&gt; tag</title>
       <title type="application/xhtml+xml">
           An ode to the &lt;blink&gt; tag</title>

 * What is the interpretation of these sequences of XML characters,
   based on @type:

       <title type="text/plain">
         Line 1
         Line 2
       </title>

       <title type="application/xhtml+xml">
         Line 1
         Line 2
       </title>

 * Can the content of a content construct with type "text/html"
   include a complete HTML entity?  For example:

       <title type="text/html"><![CDATA[<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
         "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
         <HTML>
           <HEAD>
             <TITLE>My first HTML document</TITLE>
           </HEAD>
           <BODY>
             <P>Hello world!
           </BODY>
         </HTML>
       ]]></title>

 * Are two paragraphs in a title valid?  For example:

       <title type="application/xhtml+xml">
         <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Paragraph 1</p>
         <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Paragraph 2</p>
       </title>

 * What is the extensibility mechanism for content constructs?  Can
   content from other XML namespaces be used as content values?  Other
   media types?  What is the default interpretation of unknown
   extension types?

 * Are or are not consumers expected to filter content for security
   and rendering purposes?  Will any guidance be provided for
   publishers?

 * How is whitespace in general handled in "text/plain"?  For example:

       <title>  This
         is some title   </title>

 * In "application/xhtml+xml", there are sequences of elements that
   are treated differently by current HTML renderers based on the
   ultimate XHTML document type delivered to the HTML renderer by the
   consumer.  This should be noted.

 * XHTML 1.0, 1.1, or any?

  -- Ken

---

From: Sam Ruby <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 15:35:00 -0400

>    appearance to Internet Media Types?

The latter.

>            An ode to the &lt;blink&gt; tag</title>

Text plain does not permit markup.  This example does not include markup.

>        <title type="application/xhtml+xml">

For text/plain: http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006#sec-white-space

For text/html and application/xhtml+xml:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/text.html#h-9.1

>              <TITLE>My first HTML document</TITLE>

Good point.  Only elements permitted inside html bodies was the intent. 
  That was specified in application/xhtml+xml, but not in text/html. 
Thanks!

>          <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Paragraph 2</p>

Yes.

>    media types?  What is the default interpretation of unknown

No.  From the first line of the abstract "Limit all such content to 
text/plain, text/html, and application/xhtml+xml."

>    and rendering purposes?  Will any guidance be provided for

That would need to be covered by another pace.

>  * How is whitespace in general handled in "text/plain"?  For example:

http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006#sec-white-space

>  * XHTML 1.0, 1.1, or any?

Any.

>   -- Ken

- Sam Ruby

---

From: Ken MacLeod <[email-masked]>
Date: 29 Aug 2004 15:51:29 -0500

> http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/text.html#h-9.1

In the case of xml:space="default", should it be treated similarly to
X/HTML characters?

In the case of xml:space="preserve", should it be treated like
multi-line, hard-breaking lines?

The latter (xml:space="preserve") seems to contradict the Pace's
rationale in that it is not "stuff that's already been proven to work
and be interoperable".  That's been my complaint with the label (or
Internet Media Type) "text/plain" from early on: no RSS/Atom consumer
implements "plain text" in a manner that is consistent with the use of
"text/plain" in non-RSS/Atom tools.

> >          <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Paragraph 2</p>

I would like to hear thoughts from implementors on this one.  That
seems like an invitation to not implement consistently or
interoperably.

This applies to both using block-level content with X/HTML and
xml:space="preserve" with multi-line content.

  -- Ken

---

From: [email-masked] (John Panzer)
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 14:19:08 -0700

Sam Ruby wrote:

> ...
>>    include a complete HTML entity? ...
>
> Good point.  Only elements permitted inside html bodies was the 
> intent.  That was specified in application/xhtml+xml, but not in 
> text/html. Thanks!
>
1. Does this rule out use of the inline HTML <style> tag?  As far as I 
know these must appear in the head section of a complete HTML document.  
I don't think this is any great loss, but it sort of forces #2:

2. I assume that the atom:link tag would then have to let me point at an 
external stylesheet, since I can't include a <link rel="stylesheet"> tag 
in a head section.  Is that right?

> text/plain, text/html, and application/xhtml+xml."

Apropos of this, should PaceContentSrc, which allows one to point at 
arbitrary content types but only indirectly, be listed in the "Related 
paces" or "Impacts" sections?  (It would need to be reworded at least if 
PaceContentAsTextOrHtml is accepted.)

-John