Re: Cleaning House

On Tue, 18 Nov 2008, Tina Holmboe wrote:
> 
> It has, previously, been suggested that the specification be made 
> "cleaner, stronger and better" by separating it into several distinct 
> specifications - just as I did above.

Please, if you know of someone who can help edit part of HTML5, we are 
looking for editors and would be very happy to spread the work:

   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2008Oct/0127.html

This is the only thing blocking the splitting of this spec into smaller 
pieces.


> > There is a simple reason -- it's less work for me to write one spec 
> > than to write two specs. The Workers part of HTML5 is an example of 
> > this --
> 
> I refer you to your own words:
> 
>    "Why does the size of the spec matter? Surely the benefit to authors far, 
>     far outweigh the benefits to the spec community?"
> 
> We - that is myself and several others - have, time and time again, 
> explained to you why the size matters. If you agree that it is better to 
> write to benefit authors instead of the spec community, then I find it 
> amazing that you still insist on maintaining ONE monolithic 
> specification.

We intend to have an authoring guide for authors ([1]), and a view of the 
specification that removes the implementation detail for language lawyer 
authors (not yet written). We also have a new document that defines just 
the vocabulary and syntax in a terse fashion for authors who prefer this 
view ([3]). The full spec as it stands today is not intended for authors.

[1] http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-author/
[3] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/markup-spec/

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'