A new HTML5 Working Group Decision Policy [1] in WG discussion [2].

[1] http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Oct/0189.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark

Me? I love @summary. I don’t mind if it’s not mandatory, but it’s useful when needed.

There’s been too much bias and lack of rigor in the process. It’s not so much that I think my opinions definitely right. It’s that I’m not actually very difficult to persuade. There are decisions in the HTML5 spec that I don’t agree with and the reason behind which (where known) I don’t find persuasive.

Since I refuse to subject myself to the hostility of the mailing list (it’s no great loss — I’m no genius and most of my thoughts have been previously expressed by others), what else am I to do? I could stick with XHTML 1 or HTML 4 for the next 10 years until another spec comes along. But I imagine I’ll be using HTML5 at least some of the time.

With that thought in mind I’ve formed a tentative plan. For many years I’ve made a point to ensure that my websites validate. With HTML5 I suspect I’ll use validation as I did in my early days… to catch typos. I’ll ignore the spec where I disagree with it.

It’s a weird and guilty feeling. There are so many good reasons to follow standards, even when they aren’t entirely satisfactory. But I’m not going to adhere to any rule that, in my considered opinion, is genuinely silly.

Discouraged by whom? Certainly not the W3C (find me proof of that assertion), nor, more importantly, W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative, where, in WCAG 2 one of the specifically stated means of achieving Success Criteria is to use the summary attribute on tables (http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20081211/H73)

*NONE* of the other suggestions within the Draft HTML5 spec deliver the same functionality that @summary delivers, despite Hixie’s personal interpretation.

Currently Cynthia Shelley (Microsoft) is working on behalf of the WAI Protocols and Formats Working Group to craft an appropriate ‘message’ to attach to the @summary attribute, including a useful and accurate example (provided by Wendy Chisholm). Cynthia reported to the HTML WG on Sept 14th with a useful interim update (http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Sep/0553.html), so if Ian “WONTFIX” he should step aside and let others “FIX” – wishful thinking on his behalf is not how Standards should be written.

Stay tuned for more…