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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Monday, July 12, 2004Extending HTMLHixie's Natural Log: "So Apple decided to make up some new tags. To be precise, they invented a new element, a new attribute, and a new value. The new element is canvas, an element that does nothing except provide a DOM interface for graphics drawing; the new attribute is composite, a presentational attribute that can be applied to images; and the new value is search on the type attribute of input elements, which provides a control for incremental search interfaces. These new tags are to be used in several places. One of these is Dashboard, where applications written in an HTML-like interpreted language are executed in a runtime environment similar to a Web browser's. The response to this announcement from a number of people in the industry seemed to be outrage... about the syntax. Hello? Here is Apple introducing their own proprietary markup to the Web, without going through any sort of standardisation first (not even unofficial standardisation like the WHATWG), and what people complain about is the syntax? ... So let me get this right. It's ok to send proprietary non-standard markup over the Web, so long as the angle brackets are XML angle brackets and not HTML angle brackets? This makes no sense. Proprietary markup is proprietary markup, whether it is HTML-based, XML-based, or any other language such as PDF, Microsoft Word, XAML, or Flash. It's not the exact order of the angle brackets that matters, it's the lack of open, consensus-driven specifications, the lack of interoperability" ... The real solution is to bring these proposals to the table, get some consensus between the relevant vendors and other interested parties, and then use that ... Apple were probably concerned that by talking about this stuff, they would have tipped their hand about Dashboard. WHATWG is the perfect cover, though. Apple could have put forward their proposals, discussed them, got concensus, and everyone would have thought they were just planning these features for the Web Application space. In fact, they did do this [with] the new range value for the type attribute of input elements ... Here, Apple did the right thing ... So why did they not do this with the other extensions?"Why indeed. Obviously, Apple knew that there was going to be outrage over them ripping off yet another small Mac OS X developer, and the company probably figured that if it wrapped the announcement in the feel-good aura of the WWDC, the commotion would be minimal. Throw in the usual cadre of Apple apologizers to explain, in great detail, why Apple did not, in fact, rip off anyone, but was actually just making a new version of a decades-old OS feature that no one wanted anymore (ahem), and maybe, just maybe, the hub-bub would be gone for good by the time Tiger ships in mid-2005. There's just one problem, which is apparent in this post. The folks working on next-generation Web standards are as young, active, and opinionated as Apple backers. And they're not amused at Apple pulling a Netscape and inventing new extensions to HTML outside of the normal standards process. And they're not going to stop complaining about it. [ Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink ]
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