Jon Knight writes:
> I've lost it a bit here (bear with me; its Friday afternoon!). Could
> someone explain to me again why we want to have DC metadata encoded in an
> HTML document _for_ rendering, as opposed to being tucked away in the
> hidden META elements of the HEAD?
Rendering for humans is not the main purpose but it is a significant
side benefit. The generality of the data structure is a much more
important goal. The META element only permits embedded values,
whereas the LINK element only permits references to external data, and
neither permits more complex grouping or nesting of structures.
Furthermore, their use seems tailored to this arbitrary collection of
"meta" data things with no clear definition of how to draw the
boundary (and no clear boundary possible, in my opinion).
> Using META elements in the HEAD means that the metadata can either be
> attached directly to the HTML document its describing or be put in an
> HTML document of its own if you want to keep the metadata separate.
Like you, I am assuming it *might* be external to the document. If
we want to embed this HTML data structure in an HTML document and
hide it from casual view, then we probably need some other extension
to HTML. Simply putting it in the HEAD might work, but I think not for
all browsers. But I think there is much more value in permitting the
metadata to be external to the document; it can be associated with the
document via a LINK tag (you suggest META, but how?).
I think it would be a mistake to put a META section in an HTML
document intended as metadata for *another* document. How would you
specify the metadata of *that* document, such as who created it and
when? (Please don't go anti-recursive on me Stu. This is a basic,
relatively simple concept that most people won't have to deal with
anyway.)
> ... (talking about using <DL>...</DL> for DC metadata), "This
> suggested approach did not gain much support from the syntax working
> group and is not recommended."
I missed that too. I think it did not get discussed enough, but
perhaps because I didn't push it hard enough. I tend to get
frustrated when my obviously good ideas are ignored. :-)
dan
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