HTML General Review

[torgo]

Placeholder for a HTML general review discussion that we have been discussing today.

Goal:

• Pick a number of points on which to open separate issues, which we can then dig into and provide substantive feedback to HTML WG

[tantek]

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[domenic]

@tantek use the "Subscribe" button on the sidebar.

[tantek]

@domenic apparently by mentioning me you subscribed me! "You’re receiving notifications because you were mentioned."

[dbaron]

Discussed at London face-to-face. Though we're likely to continue discussion to tomorrow morning.

We need to figure out how to split this up.

One meta-point that came up briefly was the value of specifying requirements for document conformance, which is something that HTML does but few other Web specs do. This might be worth future discussion.

[nigelmegitt]

Examples of two specs that do specify document conformance requirements in very different ways, both from the TTWG:

• TTML2 ED §3.1
• WebVTT ED §4

[annevk]

CSS does as well. body { background:blue works, but is not valid.

It's not common for APIs, but for declarative formats it's fairly reasonable and establishes some rough notion of forward compatibility, by having things you're not supposed to use, but won't cause a fatal error either, thereby allowing for extensions.

[travisleithead]

For this issue, we have consensus to split this up into various more specific parts of HTML for individual review. @travisleithead tasked with proposing the logical review chunks.

[travisleithead]

HTML "Sub-specs" review breakout proposal

The features enumerated below focus on areas of the spec with browser implementation requirements (such as processing models or algorithms), and mostly skip sections of conformance criteria. Also, features with little differentiation (e.g., <small>, <u>, <b>, etc.) are not included as there is not much to review for them anyway.

HTML Document and Elements
Structured Serialize/Deserialize
Custom Elements
HTML Linking
HTML Styling - david
HTML Lists
HTML Ruby - david
HTML Images
Browsing Contexts and Security
HTML Media
HTML Tables - david
HTML Forms
HTML Input
HTML Option Lists - david
HTML User Interaction
HTML Focus
HTML Scripting
HTML Templates
HTML Drawing
Microdata
Navigation and Browsing History
App Cache
HTML Utilities
HTML Parsing
HTML Timers and Timeslicing - david
Server-Sent Events
Web Sockets
Cross-Document Messaging
Web Workers
Web Storage
XML Infrastructure
HTML Obsolete Features
IANA Registries

(33 groups)

DETAILED BREAKDOWN

The "Features" are just a sample of what you will encounter as part of the listed spec sections, it's not meant to be exhaustive.

The "Sections" are all the sections of the HTML spec that would be included in the "sub spec" review. I tried to group sections of the spec that made sense together and favored each "sub-spec" with a good balance of size and complexity--though some "sub-specs" are definately bigger than others. There's still lots of entanglement, but I think this is a pretty good first attempt. Where the spec section has associated Web Platform Tests, the specific WPT path is noted.

HTML Document and Elements

Sections	WPT path	Features
2.6.1	html/dom/reflection-*.html	property/attribute reflection
2.6.2 to 2.6.4	html/infrastructure/common-dom-interfaces	collections
3.1	html/dom/documents	document
3.2	html/dom/elements	htmlelement
4.2.2	html/semantics/document-metadata/the-title-element	<title>
4.2.5	html/semantics/document-metadata/the-meta-element	<meta>
4.3.11	html/semantics/sections/headings-and-sections (no tests)	outline algorithm
8.1.5	(no tests)	events and event handlers

Structured Serialize/Deserialize

Sections	WPT path	Features
2.7	html/infrastructure/safe-passing-of-structured-data	passing/storing structured data

Custom Elements

Sections	WPT path	Features
3.2.3	custom-elements/htmlconstructor
4.13	custom-elements	<my-element>

HTML Linking

Sections	WPT path	Features
2.4	html/infrastructure/urls	dynamic changes to base URL
4.2.3	html/semantics/document-metadata/the-base-element	<base>
4.2.4	html/semantics/document-metadata/the-link-element	<link>
4.5.1	html/semantics/text-level-semantics/the-a-element	<a>
4.6	html/semantics/links	link types
4.6.6.17	preload	(preload link type)

HTML Styling

Sections	WPT path	Features
3.2.7	innerText	innerText (returns an element's text "as rendered")
4.2.6	html/semantics/document-metadata/the-style-element	<style>
	html/semantics/document-metadata/styling
4.2.7	html/semantics/document-metadata/interactions-of-styling-and-scripting
14.1 to 14.8	html/rendering	CSS UA stylesheet rendering

HTML Lists

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.4.8	html/semantics/grouping-content/the-li-element	<li>
4.4.5	html/semantics/grouping-content/the-ol-element	<ol>

HTML Ruby

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.5.10	html/semantics/text-level-semantics/the-ruby-element	<ruby>, <rt>, <rp>

HTML Images

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.8.1 to 4.8.4	(no picture element tests?)	<picture>, <source>
4.8.3	html/semantics/embedded-content/the-img-element	<img>, decode() (see #182)
4.8.13 to 4.8.15	html/semantics/embedded-content/image-maps	image maps

Browsing Contexts and Security

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.8.5	html/semantics/embedded-content/the-iframe-element	<iframe>, srcdoc
4.8.6	html/semantics/embedded-content/the-embed-element	<embed>
4.8.7	html/semantics/embedded-content/the-object-element	<object>
7.1	html/browsers/windows	browsing contexts
7.2 to 7.3	html/browsers/the-window-object	cross-realm security model, window, window.open()
7.4	html/browsers/the-windowproxy-exotic-object	window
7.5	html/browsers/origin
7.6	html/browsers/sandboxing	sandbox
8.2	html/webappapis/the-windoworworkerglobalscope-mixin	self.origin

HTML Media

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.8.9	html/semantics/embedded-content/the-video-element	<video>
4.8.10	html/semantics/embedded-content/the-audio-element	<audio>
4.8.11	html/semantics/embedded-content/media-elements/track/track-element	<track>
4.8.12	html/semantics/embedded-content/media-elements	media process model

HTML Tables

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.9	html/semantics/tabular-data	<table> et al.

HTML Forms

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.10.3	html/semantics/forms/the-form-element	<form>
4.10.15	html/semantics/forms/the-fieldset-element	<fieldset>
4.10.17	html/semantics/forms/form-control-infrastructure	process model
4.10.18	html/semantics/forms/attributes-common-to-form-controls	autocomplete, maxlength, etc.
4.10.18.5 (see also 4.15)	html/semantics/disabled-elements	enable/disable
4.10.20	html/semantics/forms/constraints	constraint validation
4.10.21	html/semantics/forms/form-submission-0	form submission
4.10.22	html/semantics/forms/resetting-a-form	form reset

HTML Input

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.10.5	html/semantics/forms/the-input-element	<input>
4.10.5.3.10	html/input/the-placeholder-attribute	placeholder
4.10.6	html/semantics/forms/the-button-element	<button>
4.10.11	html/semantics/forms/the-textarea-element	<textarea>
4.10.11	html/form-elements/the-textarea-element
4.10.13	html/semantics/forms/the-progress-element	<progress>
4.10.14	html/semantics/forms/the-meter-element	<meter>
4.10.19	html/semantics/forms/textfieldselection	selection API
6.6	html/editing/editing-0	contenteditable, inputmode

HTML Option Lists

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.10.7	html/semantics/forms/the-select-element	<select>
4.10.8	html/semantics/forms/the-datalist-element	<datalist>
4.10.8	html/semantics/forms/the-optgroup-element	<optgroup>
4.10.10	html/semantics/forms/the-option-element	<option>

HTML User Interaction

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.11	html/semantics/interactive-elements	<summary>, <details>, <dialog>
6.1	html/editing/the-hidden-attribute	hidden
6.3	html/editing/activation	inert, activation
6.7	html/editing/dnd	drag-and-drop

HTML Focus

Sections	WPT path	Features
6.4	html/editing/focus	focus(), tabindex
6.5	(no tests for accesskey other than conformance-checkers/html/attributes/accesskey)	accesskey

HTML Scripting

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.12.1 to 4.12.2	html/semantics/scripting-1/the-script-element	<script>
8.1.1 to 8.1.4	html/webappapis/scripting	scripting process model, script errors/promise rejections, event loop

HTML Templates

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.12.3	html/semantics/scripting-1/the-template-element	<template>

HTML Drawing

Sections	WPT path	Features
4.12.5	html/semantics/embedded-content/the-canvas-element	<canvas>
4.12.5.1 to 4.12.5.2	2dcontext	2d context
4.12.5.3	offscreen-canvas	OffscreenCanvas (see also review #141)
8.8	(no tests?)	imagebitmap (see also review #141)

Microdata

Sections	WPT path	Features
5	(no tests)	itemscope, itemprop

Navigation and Browsing History

Sections	WPT path	Features
7.7	html/browsers/history	history, location
7.8	html/browsers/browsing-the-web	page load processing model, history traversal, unloading a document

App Cache

Sections	WPT path	Features
7.9	html/browsers/offline	application cache

HTML Utilities

Sections	WPT path	Features
8.3	html/webappapis/atob	base 64 converter
8.6.1	(user prompts, no tests?)	alert()
8.6.2	(printing, no tests?)	print()
8.7	html/webappapis/system-state-and-capabilities	navigator, protocol handlers

HTML Parsing

Sections	WPT path	Features
8.4	html/webappapis/dynamic-markup-insertion	document.write()
12.2	html/syntax/parsing	Parsing algorithm
12.4	html/syntax/parsing-html-fragments	fragment parsing
12.3	html/syntax/serializing-html-fragments	fragment serialization

HTML Timers and Timeslicing

Sections	WPT path	Features
8.5	html/webappapis/timers	setTimeout()
8.9	html/webappapis/animation-frames	requestAnimationFrame()

Server-Sent Events

Sections	WPT path	Features
9.2	eventsource	EventSource

Web Sockets

Sections	WPT path	Features
9.3	websockets	WebSocket

Cross-Document Messaging

Sections	WPT path	Features
9.1, 9.4	webmessaging	MessageChannel, BroadcastChannel

Web Workers

Sections	WPT path	Features
10	workers	dedicated and shared workers

Web Storage

Sections	WPT path	Features
11	webstorage	sessionStorage and localStorage

XML Infrastructure

Sections	WPT path	Features
2.1.11	domxpath	XPath/XSLT tweaks for HTML
13	html/syntax/serializing-xml-fragments	XML parsing/serializing
(see also)	domparser	innerHTML, XML serialization
14.9	html/rendering/unstyled-xml-documents	rendering un-styled XML documents

HTML Obsolete Features

Sections	WPT path	Features
15	html/obsolete	<marquee>, <frame>, etc.

IANA Registries

Sections	WPT path	Features
16	html/iana (no tests)	registries meant for IANA

note: the <slot> element is not included in any group, since it seemed more like a Shadow DOM-dependent feature, which we would review as part of DOM.

[travisleithead]

Some potential TODOs for each review:

• Legacy APIs that could be 'modernized'?
• Things that could require permissions that aren't modelled in the perms API?
• Areas of the platform that are 'magic' (could use explaining in terms of extensible web manifesto)

[torgo]

We agreed to close this issue in favour of the new more granular issues that @travisleithead has opened up.

[dbaron]

Also see the above list as a list of issues.

[travisleithead]

@domenic and @annevk FYI that we've sub-divided the TAG's monolithic HTML review issue into smaller, more focused issues. If there are sections (issues) you feel should get more attention/focus or have specific "features" that you'd like particular directed feedback, please let us know!

[annevk]

I'd love help untangling navigation/about:blank/general global and document lifecycle.

[dbaron]

@annevk (and others): probably best to let us know in separate issues in this repo, and with a tad more detail. (On the other hand, I'm not sure if that issue is the sort that the TAG is well-suited to help with; it sounds like it might be more a matter of doing a lot of research into what the compatibility constraints are.)

[annevk]

Yeah, you're right.

I'm not sure there's much review to be done other than of the research kind. What we primarily need is additional resources to clear all the technical debt so we have a better foundation for the rest of the platform (pretty much all of which builds on top of HTML).