W3C:
I’ve been trying to find the suitable way to contact the W3C for some time now
but I have decided to use this generic e-mail address for my purpose – the
contact page is confusing.
I’m working on an article on the English Wikipedia called "Comparison of layout
engines (XHTML 1.1)". The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how well
layout engines support XHTML 1.1 [1.1]. In order to do so the article has to
list all 1.1 elements [elem] and attributes [attri], amongst other things. In
order to make the article easy to understand and efficient, the elems and
attris should be categorised according to what modules [mod] they belong to
(and perhaps some other subcategories if they formally exist).
1.1, as opposed to XHTML 1.0 [1.0], has gone through the so-called
modularization and thus the elems and attris are categorised into various mods.
According to the 1.1 recommendation [rec], only two things changed since the
1.0 rec, aside from the modularization.
I will refer to the XHTML™ Modularization 1.1 - Second Edition as XHTML Mod and
to the XHTML™ 1.1 - Module-based XHTML - Second Edition as Mod-based XHTML in
the following text:
My main problem is trying to understand, from the XHTML Mod rec and the
Mod-based XHTML rec, how to categorise elems and attris into mods and how many
mods 1.1 actually has in total. As of 2011-05-13, the introduction of the
article reads:
The following tables compare XHTML 1.1 compatibility and support for a number
of layout engines.
XHTML 1.1 which is mainly a modularization of XHTML 1.0, is composed of 20
element modules (7 of which are submodules), including the additional Ruby
Annotation Module, and two attribute modules (Server-side Image Map Module and
Intrinsic Events Module).
I am aware that this is probably not accurate information. So my question is,
how many mods does 1.1 have and what are they? I will begin by explaining how I
came to the conclusion that 1.1 had 22 mods, 20 elem mods (of which 7 are
submodules [submod]) and 2 attri mods. In The XHTML 1.1 Document Type of
Mod-based XHTML, 21 mods are mentioned. One (Style Attribute Module) is marked
deprecated so I thought it was safe to leave that one out. However, I didn’t
use that list of mods because, as the page says, the list is for information
purposes, but the definitions in "XHTML Modularization" should be considered
definitive. When I looked at the XHTML Abstract Modules of XHTML Mod, things
became even more confusing because the rec doesn’t take into consideration what
version of XHTML is being used. Here I came up with the idea of using the mods
defined in Mod-based XHTML but categorising them according to XHTML Mod.
Mod-based XHTML:
Structure Module
Text Module
Hypertext Module
List Module
Object Module
Presentation Module
Edit Module
Bidirectional Text Module
Forms Module
Tables Module
Image Module
Client-side Image Map Module
Server-side Image Map Module
Intrinsic Events Module
Metainformation Module
Scripting Module
Style Sheet Module
Style Attribute Module (deprecated, not included)
Link Module
Base Module
Ruby Annotation Module
How I counted the mods:
1. Core Modules (only contains other mods)
2. Structure Module (submods 1)
3. Text Module (submods 2)
4. Hypertext Module (submods 3)
5. List Module (submods 4)
6. Text Extension Modules (only contains other mods)
7. Presentation Module (submods 5)
8. Edit Module (submods 6)
9. Bi-directional Text Module (submods 7)
10. Forms Modules
11. Table Modules
12. Image Module
13. Client-side Image Map Module
14. Object Module
15. Metainformation Module
16. Scripting Module
17. Style Sheet Module
18. Link Module
19. Base Module
20. Ruby Annotation Module
21. Server-side Image Map Module
22. Intrinsic Events Module
It should be easy to see how I got 22 mods in total, 20 elem mods (of which 7
are submods) and 2 attri mods, you can see this list in the article itself. I
do realise that some of the mods there have parent mods, for example the Table
Module has the Table Modules parent and the Basic Tables Module sibling.
However, I left out all basic sibling mods because those are subsets and 1.1
supports the real thing and in the Tables Modules example, I didn’t count and
include the parent of Tables Module because the Basics Table Module wasn’t
included either and so it would be strange to include parent mods with only one
submod. What should the hierarchy be, what mods are in and what mods are out?
I also need help categorising the attris. In the article, you can see in the
Attributes section that I’d begun categorising the attris as either belonging
to the two attri mods (Server-side Image Map Module and Intrinsic Events
Module) or as belonging to another type of categories that I’ve notice in some
W3C-documents, so far I had Core, I18N and Events. Don’t all attris belong to
mods in 1.1? If not, what are the formally defined "collections" of attris?
Look at the Events section and compare it with the Intrinsic Events Module
section. Why do some event attris belong to that mod and not others?
It is vital that the W3C contributes to relevant articles on Wikipedia since it
is a free-content, non-profit organisation, and one of the most popular
websites on the internet (usually within the top ten of most countries). I’m
sure more people go to Wikipedia to find information about the W3C and its
standards than to w3.org (perhaps because the content there is not easy to read
nor, seemingly, meant for beginners). I don’t expect anybody at the W3C to
actually edit Wikipedia but if I get a thorough reply, I can do it myself.
Please help me improve Wikipedia and the Web.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_(XHTML_1.1) (main
article)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_(Document_Object_Model)
(for comparison)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_(ECMAScript) (for
comparision)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_(Cascading_Style_Sheets)
(for comparision)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_(XML) (for
comparision)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_(HTML) (for
comparision)
Quick links:
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/ (XHTML 2.0)
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/ (XHTML 1.1)
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-modularization/ (XHTML Modularization)
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/ (XHTML 1.0)
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/ (HTML 4.01)
Thanks,
Stefán Örvar Sigmundsson
