[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #17632: HTML 5 Validation issues (theme independent)

[WordPress Trac]

#17632: HTML 5 Validation issues (theme independent)
--------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  amirhabibi    |       Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General       |     Version:  3.1.3
 Severity:  normal        |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch     |
--------------------------+------------------------------

Comment (by pbiron):

 [http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/17632#comment:20 @Marventus]: As
 [http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/17632#comment:22 WraithKenny] said,
 we are not all in agreement that `@rel='category'` should be removed: in
 almost every comment that I've made on this ticket I have said that the
 patch should '''not''' be applied, at least not until the semantics
 question is resolve.

 [http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/17632#comment:22 @WraithKenny]:
 thanx, I somehow missed that earlier comment on this ticket that showed
 who/when the changes were made.  A quick scan of those changes shows
 [http://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/2164 [2164]] added
 `@rel='category tag'` and [http://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/4790
 [4790]] removed `tag` when `$wp_write->using_permalinks()` returned true.

 And thanx for opening the other ticket, I got sidetracked yesterday and
 didn't get to it myself.  I've got some thoughts that I will add to that
 ticket.

 In a couple of my comments on this ticket I have said I don't know what
 `@rel='category'` is supposed to mean...but that is only partly true.
 Here's a guess on how it differs from `@rel='tag'`: `category` means the
 term is taken from a controlled vocabulary, while `tag` means it comes
 from an uncontrolled vocabulary (however, both the rel-tag spec [1] and
 HTML5 [2] are almost silent on controlled vs. uncontrolled vocab).

 Uncontrolled vs controlled vocab is a '''big''' difference, as evidenced
 by the fact that WordPress's infrastructure goes to great lengths to
 separate Categories (controlled vocab) from Tags (uncontrolled vocab).
 However, this difference only "makes a difference" if search engines (or
 other tools that process `@rel`) did something different with the link
 depending on the value of `@rel`).

 Opera used to do something with `link[@rel]` (it had a "navigation" panel
 that would appear on docs that used `link[@rel='{next,prev,up}'`, but no
 longer does) and I'm not aware of any browsers that currently do anything
 different depending on the value of `a[@rel]`.  But perhaps with HTML5's
 "formalization" of values for `@rel` they might start to.  Google and
 other search engines are generally pretty closed mouthed about exactly how
 they use various markup to effect searches ("trade secrets" and
 all)...except for perhaps `@rel='nofollow'`.

 My harping on "getting the semantics right" (as opposed to "getting the
 validators to shutup") really only matters if search engines and browsers
 treat `@rel='category'` differently from `@rel='tag'`.

 From a "get the validators to shut up" perspective, a big advantage to
 documenting what `@rel='category'` means (and updating the microformats
 wiki to point to that "spec" so that at least validator.nu, and hopefully
 other validators, will stop complaining) is that sites that have/do not
 update WordPress to whatever version would contain the patch removing
 `@rel='category'` would also pass HTML5 validation.  And we all know that
 there are innumerable reasons why people do not update to the latest
 version (incompatibility with "vital" plugins/themes being the big one).

 So, whether the patch gets applied or not, I still think a "spec" for
 `@rel='category'` should be written.

 The above reasoning also applies to `@rel='attachment'` and any other
 ''link relationship types'' the WordPress core generates.

 As I'm relatively new to WordPress, I have one other question: what is the
 official process for approving changes to core code and/or documentation?
 Does anyone who has participated in this discussion actually have the
 authority to make a decision, or is everyone commenting here, like me,
 just someone who is developing themes/plugins/sites for clients?

 [1] http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-tag [[BR]]
 [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/links.html#link-type-tag [[BR]]

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/17632#comment:27>
WordPress Trac <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/>
WordPress blogging software