> Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 11:49:08 +0200
> From: Gisle Hannemyr <[log in to unmask]>
>
> "Weibel,Stu" wrote:
> > I'm sympathetic to the argument that unapproved qualifiers should
> > not be given defacto endorsement in the the HTML draft, but at the
> > same time, we all know that virtually all DC implementations use
> > some form of qualifiers, and it is important that John's document
> > give the best guidance that we can to support this syntactically,
> > even if we don't agree on the qualifier semantics.
> ...
> One mechanism, which has been used in electronic mail for some time
> with considerable success, is to reserve the initial string "X-" and
> require all non-standard header fields to start with this string.
The initial "X-..." to mark non-standard labels (as in, X-Agent,
Creator.X-Email) was considered on several past occasions and dropped
(though I don't recall the reasoning at the moment).
Short of explicitly marking the elements, Gisle is not alone in his
concern about the appearance of non-standard labels. Paul suggested
further strengthening the cautionary note with a warning that not only
is the qualifier syntax non-standard, but the element suffix labels
(the so-called "subelement" names) are also non-standard and not
recommended. I've gone and done this. The new caution changes
three ways in which the optional qualifier syntax can supplement the
META tag may be summarized as follows:
to (which you've seen)
three ways in which the optional qualifier syntax is currently (subject
to change) used to supplement the META tag may be summarized as follows:
and then adds (revised since you've last seen it):
Note that the qualifier syntax and label suffixes (which follow an
element name and a period) used in examples in this document merely
reflect current trends in the HTML encoding of qualifiers. Use of this
syntax and these suffixes is neither a standard nor a recommendation.
As today was the deadline for early comments on the draft, I've gone ahead
and submitted the revisions for publication as a new internet draft. The
only other change is, as I mentioned previously, the addition of a URL to
the ISO8601 reference. Final cleanup can occur in the next draft.
-John
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