Tentative Agenda for IETF meeting

Eric W. Sink (eric@spyglass.com)
Fri, 2 Dec 94 12:20:54 EST

Comments to eric@spyglass.com

(I invite any comments to help focus or structure the morning session a bit
more.)

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HTML WG Morning Session

The HTML WG was formed to document and standardize the HyperText Markup Language. The topic of the morning session will be confined to HTML 2.0, the documentation and standardization of current practice. The afternoon session will discuss future directions.

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09:30-12:00 Session:

5 mins Introduction -- Tim Berners-Lee

5 mins Summary of past discussions -- Eric W. Sink

20 mins Recap of status of HTML 2.0 -- Eric W. Sink

15 mins Discussion of strategy for finishing HTML 2.0

105 mins Discussion of proposed changes to HTML 2.0 Internet Draft

Required reading: HTML 2.0 Internet Draft "The Philosophy of HTML 2.0", attached at the end of this agenda.

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13:30-15:30 Session:

5 mins Introduction and recap HTML levels -- Tim Berners-Lee

25 mins Recap of status of HTML-3 - Dave Raggett

90 mins Discussion of HTML level 3 features

The aim for the meeting will be to resolve technical questions in the HTML 3 DTD, which will be required reading. The outcome should be a set of document edits and a list of points to be settle in future net discussion.

It is possible that some overflow from the previous meeting will occur in which case it will be dealt with first.

Required reading: HTML level 3 DTD HTML level 3 paper from Geneva conference.

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The Philosophy of HTML 2.0

The HTML WG welcomes input from all participants. In an effort to raise the comfort level of the group, we'd like all new participants to be aware of the specific guidelines we've established for HTML 2.0.

HTML 2.0 is intended to document common current practice, as seen in the web today. Current widespread usage of HTML in the WWW reflects a language which has no written spec or description. The reasoning is that a useful descriptive spec could be obtained more quickly if we deferred most new proposals to future versions of the language. However, it hasn't always been simple to get unanimous consensus of what "current practice" is. Furthermore, the group has set a precedent for adopting a new proposal into HTML 2.0 when the proposal has limited impact, and there is nearly overwhelming group consensus that such a proposal is necessary.

The group has agreed to adopt a simple set of modifications to the HTML 2.0 DTD which would lay the groundwork for making the WWW more accessible to the visually impaired.

The group has agreed that the current usage of HTML 2.0 addresses the issue of international character sets rather poorly. However, in order to give proper attention to this important issue, we have decided to address it in future versions of the spec.

The current momentum of the group is get HTML 2.0 wrapped up as quickly as possible, so that we may move on to spending more of our time on these and other interesting future directions.

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--
Eric W. Sink, Senior Software Engineer --  eric@spyglass.com
                                           I don't speak for Spyglass.
"Can I get a direct flight back to reality, or do I have to change planes
in Denver?" - The Santa Clause