00:14
<Hixie>
ok
00:14
Hixie
has now read all feedback on offline storage and is coming up with ideas
00:15
<Hixie>
Please Stand By... Processing Feedback... 12% [## ]
01:11
<zcorpan>
error reporting in the content-type sniffing algorithms might not be a bad idea, actually
01:12
<Philip`>
Does the error reporting need to be more complex than just complaining if the sniffed content type != the HTTP Content-Type?
01:12
<zcorpan>
don't think so
01:13
<zcorpan>
the html spec might not need to say anything about it, since it isn't really in scope for html
01:13
<zcorpan>
but we could still log such cases in the error console
02:35
<Hixie>
woot
02:35
Hixie
adds support for fragment identifiers to his issues list
02:50
<Philip`>
Hixie: With your idea, is there anything to stop people getting inconsistent caches if they're already in the middle of an update when the web server starts serving a newer version of the application?
03:42
<Hixie>
Philip`: no, that's the same as the status quo, effectively
04:00
<Lachy>
Hixie, re: "btw Lachy if you can suggest some page-only heuristics (i.e. not involving the network) for detecting bogus longdesc=""s that would have caught them in the URLs i mentioned, it would be useful"
04:01
<Lachy>
the only other heurisitic I thought of what checking the URL to see if it ended in .jpg, .png, .gif, etc. since linking a longdesc to an image is pointless. But that would have only caught one example that I found
04:02
<Lachy>
re [D] links and longdesc, http://joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/Chapter06.html#d-links
04:02
<Lachy>
that can be summarised as: "[D]" links look awful, difficult to associate a link directly with the image, longdesc doesn't cause catastrophic bugs in browsers, and "[D]" links are as bad as "click here"
04:04
<Lachy>
I think the first issue can be solved by using different link text or hiding it with CSS,
04:04
<Lachy>
the next could possibly be solved using <figure><img><a rel=longdesc/></figure>,
04:05
<Lachy>
and the third is countered by the argument that existing use of longdesc is more harmful
04:05
<Hixie>
Lachy: i actually saw some .png/.jpg/.gif links that were real description of the images
04:05
<Lachy>
oh, ok.
04:05
<Hixie>
but yeah
04:06
<Hixie>
i wanted to do that originally
04:06
<Hixie>
i think i saw someone had ...descriptions...?foo.gif
04:06
<Hixie>
or some such
04:06
<Hixie>
heh, maciej ignored my request at the top of the e-mail :-P
04:06
<Lachy>
oh, well you'd have to ignore the query string, but I suppose that's still no guarantee
04:06
<Hixie>
othermaciej: which list should i reply to you on
04:07
<othermaciej>
Hixie: what was your request?
04:07
<Hixie>
to only reply to one list :-)
04:07
<othermaciej>
oh, you cross-posted
04:07
<othermaciej>
didn't even notice that
04:07
<othermaciej>
mea culpa
04:07
<Hixie>
hehe
04:07
<Hixie>
no worries
04:07
<Hixie>
i'll just post to the htmlwg one i guess
04:07
<othermaciej>
I'm actually not sure which list contains more of the interested parties
04:07
<Hixie>
yeah me neither
04:07
<Hixie>
but i'm sure i'll get flamed if i use the whatwg list
04:08
<Hixie>
actually i really want to hit the scour people with this
04:08
<Hixie>
and i don't think they're on public-html
04:08
<Hixie>
so screw it
04:08
<Hixie>
whatwg it is
04:12
<Hixie>
hey Lachy?
04:12
<Lachy>
yo
04:12
<Hixie>
Lachy: i didn't get mail from public-forms-tf, should i have?
04:13
<Lachy>
the list still isn't showing up for me in the maintenance page, so I can't fix it
04:13
<Hixie>
ah ok
04:13
<Hixie>
danc told me you were in charge now, so i'd assumed it'd gone through
04:14
<Lachy>
I mailed sysreq yesterday and still haven't heard back
04:14
<Lachy>
well, sysreq initially responded and said it was all done. it's hasn't and I'm waiting to hear back. I'll check with danc later
04:15
<Hixie>
k
04:18
<Lachy>
http://blog.whatwg.org/omit-alt#comment-7669 he seems to ignored everything I wrote
04:19
<Lachy>
I wonder if he actually read the spec?
04:21
<Hixie>
unlikely
04:21
<Hixie>
but i wouldn't worry about it
07:31
<Lachy>
Hixie, http://canvex.lazyilluminati.com/misc/cgi/issues.cgi/message/%3Ca9699fd20704042335r113597a2u343d8134cb28e0f4%40mail.gmail.com%3E :-)
07:34
<Lachy>
I think it's base64 encoded, so it's unreadable
07:36
<Lachy>
same thing has happened to quite a few messages
08:22
<Lachy>
cool, I just noticed there's a new French translation on the blog http://blog.whatwg.org/pourquoi-le-texte-alternatif-peut-etre-omis-french - it was translated within 3.5 hours :-)
08:42
<MikeSmith>
I wasn't aware the it had been decided that alternate text was the first principle of accessibility.
08:43
<MikeSmith>
So, hey, I learned something today.
08:47
<MikeSmith>
It's like I asked Pope Ratzinger: Dude, a lot of that stuff you talk about all the time -- that you claim is gospel truth -- well, I can't actually find mention of a lot of that stuff in the Bible.
08:47
<MikeSmith>
But at least the Catholic church calls it exactly what it is, which is Dogma.
08:49
<MikeSmith>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogma
08:49
<MikeSmith>
[[
08:49
<MikeSmith>
established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization, thought to be authoritative and not to be disputed or doubted.
08:49
<MikeSmith>
]]
08:50
<MikeSmith>
"Rejection of dogma is considered heresy in certain religions, and may lead to expulsion from the religious group."
08:50
<Lachy>
so you're saying we shouldn't be questioning the wisdom of the accessibility community, and just do what they say?
08:50
<krijnh>
Hmm, what's http://html4all.org/ ?
08:54
<MikeSmith>
Lachy - I can't answer that question for you. I guess it depends on whether you put your trust in Faith or Reason.
08:56
<Lachy>
well, I've never been one to accept dogma of any kind, so at the risk of being hated by the accessibility community, I choose reason and logic
08:57
<Lachy>
krijnh, looks like John Foliot owns that wiki
08:57
<krijnh>
Lachy: Ah
08:57
<Lachy>
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=html4all.org
08:59
<MikeSmith>
Lachy - I think it might not be all the productive to accept the usage of the term "accessibility community"
08:59
<Lachy>
well, how else should I refer to the group of people who obviously dislike me and are typically involved with accessibility?
09:00
<MikeSmith>
Some of those objecting to the current HTML5 spec makes it sound like there's this unified monolithic group with a single set principles that they all agree on.
09:00
<krijnh>
The anti-Lachsessibility people
09:00
<MikeSmith>
And that they are speaking for that community.
09:01
<Lachy>
well, I know they don't speak for the whole community, but they're certainly the most vocal
09:01
<MikeSmith>
like the Moral Majority
09:01
<krijnh>
Same with some HTML5 people
14:06
<kjetilkWork>
virtuelv: I just assigned to give a talk about XML parsing vs. JSON parsing too, and why JSON is interesting
14:06
<kjetilkWork>
of course, I have no clue about that, got any good pointers? :-)
14:07
<kjetilkWork>
got the Opera static build running on amd64, BTW
14:22
<virtuelv>
kjetilkWork: json.org?
14:24
<kjetilkWork>
virtuelv: I was thinking independent speed benchmarking and that kind of stuff
14:24
<virtuelv>
no clue
14:25
<virtuelv>
I fear we're running wildly off-topic, though
14:25
<kjetilkWork>
ok
17:02
<MikeSmith>
krijnh - true
17:03
<MikeSmith>
The lesson from it I guess it that everybody ought to be continuously checking/questioning their own assumptions.
17:04
<MikeSmith>
It's like that moment in the Matrix, blue pill or red pill
17:05
<MikeSmith>
Do you want to see things as they really are, even if it's ugly and scary? Or do you want to keep seeing things as you've been comfortable seeing them and assumed they really are?
17:07
<Lachy>
I already accepted the ugly and scary reality 3 years ago
17:09
<MikeSmith>
Well, I think you're going to continue to have people strolling in, looking at selective parts of the HTML5 work from their own blinkered perspective, and saying, You guys are really making a big mess of things. When the reality is of course, No, the mess is already all around you, and has been for a long time.
17:14
<krijnh>
Ping
17:14
<Hixie>
at the risk of offending people, from what i can tell from speaking to people who really are part of the "accessibility comunity", most of the vocal complainers about accessibility in the htmlwg aren't actually really part of the "real" accessibility community
17:15
<krijnh>
Sorry, my connection dropped :/
17:17
<MikeSmith>
Hixie - I can imagine that in some cases, they could in fact be individuals who have actually had similar combative discussions with people in the WAI WGs
17:17
<MikeSmith>
Just hypothetically, I'm imagining.
17:19
<MikeSmith>
Anyway, it's really hard at times to see how to engage in discussion with them productively.
17:19
<MikeSmith>
If they are not willing to consider questioning whether some of their views are not in fact just dogma.
17:20
<MikeSmith>
like that "alternate text is the first principle of accessibility" statement in the comments to Lachy's post about Alt
17:20
<Lachy>
Hixie, do you mean there are others more involved with accessibility who actually agree with your controversial decisions?
17:20
<MikeSmith>
as if that is self-evident or axiomatic or something
17:21
MikeSmith
notes that my last statement was continuation of my previous one, not a response to what Lachy just said
17:22
<Hixie>
Lachy: i wouldn't necessarily go that far :-P
17:24
MikeSmith
needs to wander off for a bit
17:24
<MikeSmith>
back on later
17:25
<Hixie>
i guess tomorrow unless someone sees something wrong with it i'll write up the offline storage stuff
17:41
<Dashiva>
Hixie: At the risk of being quoted again, it's missing a longapplication attribute ;)
17:41
<Hixie>
no comment! :-P
17:42
<Dashiva>
One thing I thought about was the ability to run more than one copy of the same app, but I suppose that could be handled in the app itself
17:44
<zcorpan>
wonder if we only want to do fancy html attribute processing in quirks mode
17:44
<zcorpan>
color attribute processing that is
17:45
<MikeSmith>
Hixie, Lachy - regarding the earlier discussion, I wonder why you guys might think of the idea of sort of agreeing to declare a moratorium on discussion of document conformance issues on public-html.
17:45
<zcorpan>
ie7 does it in standards mode as well, but opera, safari and firefox limit it to quirks mode
17:46
<MikeSmith>
What I mean is, no discussions on public-html at this point about whether a particular element or attribute should/will be dropped, whether or not is should be conformant or non-conformant.
17:46
<Lachy>
so we can focus more on processing requirements?
17:47
<MikeSmith>
Exactly
17:47
<MikeSmith>
on interoperability issues
17:47
<MikeSmith>
On the conformance criteria for implementations, not for documents.
17:47
<Hixie>
MikeSmith: that's up to DanC
17:47
<Hixie>
MikeSmith: on whatwg, i welcome all feedback, on any topic
17:47
<Lachy>
some people might object to that. There are people who think we should only define processing requirements for conforming documents
17:48
<MikeSmith>
Lachy - I don't think that the charter would justify restricting discussion of processing requirements to only conforming documents.
17:48
<Lachy>
indeed. I'm just saying why some people would still object
17:49
<MikeSmith>
I know
17:49
<Hixie>
people will object whatever we do
17:49
<Hixie>
i don't think trying to reduce objections will be very productive to be honest
17:49
<MikeSmith>
Hixie - why?
17:49
<Hixie>
i think our time is better spent sifting through the feedback and summarising it into problem statements
17:49
<Lachy>
well, something needs to be done with public-html. I'm just not sure what would help
17:50
<Hixie>
MikeSmith: why to which?
17:50
<Hixie>
the only thing that imho needs to be done to whatwg is the stopping of people's rants being cross-posted to whatwg
17:50
<Hixie>
i was unhappy when i saw john's rant
17:51
<MikeSmith>
Why you don't think it would productive to try to reduce objections, I meant. But anyway, my point was not about trying to reduce objections, it was about trying to get people's attention on the parts of the work that are a much bigger priority.
17:52
<MikeSmith>
I would say the same thing about such rants being cross-posted to public-html
17:52
<Hixie>
oh, because i don't think it's possible. i think you could reduce the number of vocalised objections, but bottling them up is only going to cause more pain later.
17:52
<Lachy>
such rants shouldn't be posted anywhere
17:53
<Hixie>
Lachy: no argument from me there, but that's up to the chairs of each group. i don't find crap like that on whatwg acceptable behaviour.
17:53
<Hixie>
as i think i made clear to him
17:53
<Hixie>
we'll see
17:53
<MikeSmith>
I seriously wonder if we should perhaps start another list, public-html-conformance or something
17:54
<Lachy>
we've already got 3 lists for the HTMLWG
17:54
<Whiskey_M>
Good morning one and all :-)
17:54
<Lachy>
I'm not sure we need a 4th
17:54
<Hixie>
more lists doesn't help me at all, since i just end up getting the same amount of mail, except i need to work out which one to post to
17:55
<MikeSmith>
Hixie - what would you think about freezing the document-conformance parts of the spec for now? Not making any further changes with regard to whether a particular element or attribute is conformant or not?
17:55
<Lachy>
we've got public-html, public-html-wg-announce, public-html-comments, whatwg, whatwg-implementers, whatwg-help and now public-forms-tf. 7 lists directly related to the work on the spec is enough
17:56
<MikeSmith>
Lachy - I guess I suggested it just as a way to reduce traffic on public-html
17:56
<Hixie>
MikeSmith: i'm just gonna be going down the list of feedback
17:56
<Hixie>
MikeSmith: if it involves document conformance, sobeit
17:56
<MikeSmith>
to focus discussion on public-html, for the time being, around spec'ing implementation behavior
17:57
<Hixie>
you won't reduce traffic to public-html
17:57
<Hixie>
there are 400 people subscribed to it
17:58
<Hixie>
(hmm, whatwg is up to 804)
17:58
<MikeSmith>
Hixie - You don't think that would at least help to reduce some of the unproductive, contentious discussion?
17:59
<MikeSmith>
I mean, how unproductive or contentious could a discussion about the tokenizer, parser, DOM behavior etc., be?
18:00
<Lachy>
probably not, I doubt the contentious issues are still going to come up in comments until they get their own way (note, even in the design principles survey, people used it as a platform to voice their concern about various contentious issues)
18:00
<Hixie>
MikeSmith: the topic of discussion is not why the discussion is unproductive
18:00
<Lachy>
s/doubt/think/
18:00
<MikeSmith>
Hixie - what is the reason, then?
18:02
<MikeSmith>
Hixie - in going through the list of feedback, you're of course not under any obligation to do it in serial fashion. You can prioritize what to focus on, and I'm sure you do already, anyway.
18:02
<MikeSmith>
You can choose to make responding to feedback about conformance a lower priority if you want.
18:03
<Hixie>
actually my priorities tend to be strongly influenced by what browser vendors are working on
18:03
<Hixie>
i regularly get private requests to fast track a particular feature area because they are going to fix bugs in that area shortly
18:03
<Hixie>
it's one of the best ways to ensure that the browsers actually follow the spec
18:04
<MikeSmith>
Hixie - right, which would seem to make me think most of the conformance criteria is not a priority at all
18:04
<Hixie>
(and one of the vendors in question is henri, who's writing a conformance checker, so conformance is a priority sometimes)
18:05
<MikeSmith>
So Henri's conformance checker is if equal priority to you as browser implementations are?
18:07
<Hixie>
Henri's goodwill is of high priority to me, yes
18:07
<Hixie>
he has been a huge help to the spec
18:08
<MikeSmith>
I recognize that of course
18:09
<MikeSmith>
But the issue is not Henri personally, it's whether at this point the needs of having a spec that's useful for building a conformance checker are of the same priority as having a spec that's useful for solving browser interoperability problems
18:10
<MikeSmith>
Or the relative market demand for a interoperable browsers vs. conformance checkers
18:11
<Hixie>
it's all important
18:20
<Hixie>
nn
18:20
<Lachy>
bye hixie
18:25
<MikeSmith>
so, about some of the most recent messages to public-html on the Offline Web Apps thread: If, hypothetically, you see somebody posting a massive number of long messages to mailing list over a long period of time, and as far as you can tell that person's day job -- professional/educational responsibilities, whatever -- doesn't seem to related at all to the HTML work or even to Web technologies in general...
18:26
<MikeSmith>
...it sorta might make one wonder if they are actually doing the job that their employer/advisor/whoever is actually paying/expecting them to be doing right now
18:27
<MikeSmith>
And if so, where they actually find the time to do that, between the sending of huge volumes of e-mail
18:29
<MikeSmith>
But I guess it would be none of my business, anyway, to question such a person. If such were to exist, hypothetically
19:00
<nickshanks>
how are things in here? sorry i've not been around for a while, have been burdened by getting a job
19:31
<Hixie>
John just replied to the thread I told him to not forward to whatwg.
19:31
Hixie
goes to cycle to work to cool off and not explode at him
19:33
<nickshanks>
molly was talking about lots of angst on her blog too. what happened?
19:34
<takkaria>
nickshanks: lots and lots of misunderstanding and not listening
20:23
<Dashiva>
So, where do we get our "Member of the IRC cabal" t-shirts?
20:24
<Philip`>
Was http://www.spreadshirt.com/shop.php?sid=108788 popular enough to justify a new design?
20:25
<othermaciej>
I just kind of exploded at him
20:26
<Dashiva>
I never liked that one, Philip`. It's too obviously true for peopel to ponder the implications
20:27
<Philip`>
It's so obviously true that people will ponder the implications of why you felt the need to express that statement on your clothing
20:28
<jgraham>
I hope John realises he is not doing the term "accessibility advocate" any favours
20:28
<hober>
I get asked about it every single time I wear it.
20:28
gsnedders
still hasn't ordered one
20:28
<hober>
"So what's the deal with your shirt? Of course 5 is greater than 2."
20:29
<gsnedders>
I'd just laugh.
20:29
<gsnedders>
as myself and othermaciej argued, the joke is lost if you actually give it any context, and it becomes too geeky
20:30
<Dashiva>
jgraham: As indicated earlier, I really like "IRC cabal" however :)
20:31
<Philip`>
Is it really a cabal if it publishes logs of everything that goes on?
20:32
<gsnedders>
Philip`: we're totally deniable.
20:33
<gavin_>
Philip`: are you looking to start log-editing conspiracies? ;)
20:36
<gsnedders>
meh. even the small 5 > 2 shirt might be too big
20:36
<Philip`>
It seems quite helpful to have a group of people who tend to think along similar lines and are happy to communicate with each other frequently, in terms of making progress in some direction
20:37
<Philip`>
(It's much less good if that's a bad direction; but I'd think it's still better than making no progress at all)
20:47
<jgraham>
Philip`: The htmlwg is making the best attempt it can at making no progress at all
20:48
<hober>
not to promote my own joke too much, but we could always make "vast, browser-wing conspiracy" t-shirts (http://www.mail-archive.com/www-archive⊙wo/msg00554.html)
20:48
<hober>
maybe that's too US-centric?
20:49
<gavin_>
heh
21:08
<Dashiva>
The implementati
21:35
Hixie
sighs deeply
21:36
<Hixie>
i didn't want to do that
21:36
<Hixie>
i wish people would not ignore my requests and not insult the whatwg community
21:37
<Hixie>
on an unrelated note, gsnedders: if you leave the htmlwg please do remain in the whatwg, your feedback is very useful
21:37
<gsnedders>
Hixie: I have no intention of leaving WHATWG
21:37
<Hixie>
cool
21:38
<gsnedders>
I would not be amazed if the WG needs its charter re-examined due to implementers pulling out
21:38
<Hixie>
that would be so sad
21:39
<gsnedders>
On an unrelated note, I've started work on an I-D regarding HTTP request/response parsing
21:39
<Hixie>
interesting
21:39
<Hixie>
good luck with that
21:40
<Hixie>
the http community is not one that really believes in defined error handling
21:40
<Hixie>
or in caring about browsers
21:40
<gsnedders>
look at RFC2616, which already has a section on tolerant applications
21:40
<Hixie>
(see, e.g. the cool reception that the suggestion to remove Content-Location received)
21:40
<Hixie>
yeah
21:40
<Hixie>
but they don't like defining what that means, in my experience :-)
21:41
<othermaciej>
gsnedders: it would be sad if a minority of abusive people could drive out useful contributors; I hope it doesn't come to that
21:41
<gsnedders>
I've put various things like that (cont-location) in an informative appendix, as it is really out of scope
21:41
<othermaciej>
what's the difference between Location and Content-Location supposed to be?
21:41
<Hixie>
Content-Location is like <base href>
21:41
<Hixie>
except a huge number of servers send out bogus values
21:41
<Hixie>
so implementing it per spec breaks sites
21:41
<Hixie>
a lot of them
21:41
<gsnedders>
IIS bug. documented by MS.
21:42
<othermaciej>
oh
21:42
<Hixie>
iirc it's not just IIS, but yeah
21:42
<gsnedders>
Hixie: I looked through various things before pulling support for it myself, I never saw anything that wasn't IIS with the bug
21:42
<Hixie>
hm ok
21:42
<Hixie>
what did you pull support from?
21:43
Hixie
goes to get food and will then write up the offline web apps idea in the spec
21:43
<gsnedders>
a _really_ shit implementation of HTTP/1.0 thrown together really quickly for a feed library, namely SimplePie
21:43
<Hixie>
so if you have comments on that, especially "it doesn't work", mention them soon :-)
21:43
<Hixie>
gsnedders: aah
21:43
<G0k>
Hixie: i had a thought about the offline web apps thing. For multi-page apps, could you use <link> elements? like <link rel="application resource" href="someotherpage.html" />
21:43
<othermaciej>
Hixie: I think there's lots of smaller issues besides the pretty big one (IMO) of not really working for multi-page apps
21:43
<othermaciej>
Hixie: I don't think I'll have time to review it in detail today though
21:44
<Hixie>
i think aaron's idea (to just have an API to initiate the caching of another top-level page app) solves the multipage issue
21:44
<G0k>
like a DOM API?
21:44
<othermaciej>
Hixie: you can't cache the other page correctly without executing all scripts in it
21:44
<Hixie>
G0k: yeah, though we could have a declarative thing too
21:44
<othermaciej>
that seems obviously unacceptable
21:44
<Hixie>
othermaciej: sure, you just use the background window thing just like the update process
21:44
<gsnedders>
the bug is fixed in IIS7, from what I can see on the web
21:44
<Hixie>
what is obviously unacceptable?
21:45
<othermaciej>
Hixie: how does the background window avoid executing scripts?
21:45
<Hixie>
othermaciej: why would it need to avoid executing scripts?
21:45
<G0k>
i feel like anything that depends on scripting being executed makes this overly complicated
21:45
<Hixie>
othermaciej: you want it to run scripts.
21:45
<G0k>
what if you want a web app that's static?
21:45
<Hixie>
not much of an app, then
21:45
<Hixie>
normal http caching already solves the "offline web page" problem
21:45
<othermaciej>
Hixie: executing all scripts on a 50-page site just to cache all 50 pages seems like a large and probably unacceptable performance cost
21:46
<Hixie>
othermaciej: what web app uses 50 pages?
21:46
<G0k>
right but http caching doesn't do multi-page stuff
21:46
<Hixie>
G0k: sure, just crawl the site. even IE4 can do that.
21:46
<othermaciej>
Hixie: something that used history state with URI updating could easily use a lot more than 50 (where nearly all resources are actually shared)
21:46
<othermaciej>
Hixie: I like the seductive simplicity of your idea
21:47
<othermaciej>
Hixie: but I think many more complex cases are much better addressed with an explicit manifest of some kind
21:47
<othermaciej>
the manifest could still be in the markup
21:47
<othermaciej>
and you could recognize that multiple pages should use the same cache by the fact that they link the same manifest
21:47
<othermaciej>
then you can pre-cache a bunch of stuff without the need for redundant script execution or HTML parsing
21:47
<Hixie>
othermaciej: none of the applications i looked at (admittedly mostly google ones) actually need multipage caching, i'm somewhat reluctant to support that without some pretty concrete examples.
21:48
<Hixie>
especially given that it makes it more complex by an order of magnitude for pretty much everyone
21:48
<Hixie>
brb fod
21:48
<Hixie>
fod
21:48
<G0k>
yeah i mean i feel like we should have a real semantic way of saying "I want you to cache this other page"
21:48
<Hixie>
foOd
21:48
<G0k>
or maybe more simply
21:48
<othermaciej>
there's lots of multi-page web apps out there
21:48
<othermaciej>
I'm not sure how many would benefit strongly from an offline mode
21:48
<G0k>
"This other page should have the same caching policy as me"
21:48
<othermaciej>
flickr and upcoming are two very popular and obvious examples
21:49
<G0k>
how about word processor?
21:49
<G0k>
google write or whatever
21:49
<othermaciej>
digg and reddit would also be examples of multi-page web apps
21:49
<G0k>
why would you want digg offline?
21:50
<gsnedders>
Basecamp?
21:50
<othermaciej>
G0k: maybe I visit it when offline, and then I want to be able to read offline at any time and see more than the front page
21:50
<gsnedders>
A lot of 37 Signals stuff could do with being usable offline
21:51
<G0k>
why not just have the server properly give cache control instructions to the UA so that it does that?
21:52
<othermaciej>
you mean http cache-control?
21:53
<G0k>
yeah
21:54
<othermaciej>
cache-control doesn't give a way to get the UA to use possibly-stale versions of the content when offline
21:54
<othermaciej>
nor to update a group of resources atomically
21:54
<G0k>
doesn't that what offline mode does?
21:55
<G0k>
*isn't
21:55
<G0k>
hm
21:56
<G0k>
i guess cache-control doesn't have a way to say "cache me indefinitely"
21:57
<G0k>
although you could say....make it not expire for 1000 years
21:57
<G0k>
but then even then, the UA could decide not to cache anyway
21:57
<Hixie>
that'd be bad, the client might never check that the file had changed :-)
21:58
<G0k>
well i feel like people should start changing the entire model of their app designs
21:58
<G0k>
rather than sending a huge chunk of content + design
21:58
<G0k>
just send an "empty" shell of the app
21:58
<G0k>
then fetch content seperately
21:58
<G0k>
thus the shell part never expires
21:59
Hixie
looks at flickr, upcoming, digg, reddit
21:59
<G0k>
and doesn't have to keep getting fetched
21:59
<G0k>
maybe use event-source to get new stories. :)
21:59
<Hixie>
heh
21:59
<takkaria>
I don't see that flickr is a useful thing to use offline
21:59
<Hixie>
G0k: http://www.digg.com/spy
22:00
<G0k>
hixie: yeah i think they using polling
22:00
<G0k>
or the long download technique
22:01
<Hixie>
that's what whatwg.org/issues/top uses
22:01
<Hixie>
i hate it
22:01
<Hixie>
bring on TCPConnection
22:01
<G0k>
ok that's a question i have too
22:01
<G0k>
what's the point of making TCPConnection use that weird protocol
22:01
<G0k>
?
22:02
<G0k>
why not make it a real raw TCP connection?
22:02
<takkaria>
security risks?
22:02
<G0k>
such as?
22:02
<Hixie>
yeah, you can't possibly have raw sockets flying about
22:03
<takkaria>
well, what's the point in having cross-domain security restrictions if you can just write your own HTTP client in JS with none of them?
22:03
<G0k>
well not a raw socket, just a pure tcp connection
22:03
<Hixie>
what takkaria said
22:03
<Hixie>
G0k: that's what i meant
22:03
<G0k>
the TCP connections could still have the same domain security policy stuff
22:03
<Hixie>
how?
22:04
<Hixie>
TCP connections are IP-bound, not domain-bound
22:04
<Hixie>
hixie.ch and whatwg.org and damowmow.com are all at the same IP
22:04
<G0k>
well ok, IP security at least
22:04
<G0k>
so then what?
22:05
<gsnedders>
see y'all tomorrow (and we'll see whether I'll still be in the WG then)
22:05
<othermaciej>
same-domain isn't good enough since it still allows cross-protocol attacks
22:05
<othermaciej>
the only way to offer raw TCP sockets that I've heard which is at all workable is to have a central control file served by HTTP from the server
22:06
<G0k>
an evil person could hijack hixie.ch and then send TCP requests to some other service on that server?
22:06
<othermaciej>
which would control access
22:06
<othermaciej>
G0k: currently http servers running on two different ports on the same system are considered separate security domains
22:07
<othermaciej>
takkaria: subsets of flickr could be useful offline - viewing photos I've viewed before, queuing new photos, descriptions and comments for upload on next connection, etc
22:07
<G0k>
well this certainly wouldn't be any less secure than Java or Flash, which already allow you to connect to arbitrary services on the document's origin IP
22:07
<othermaciej>
takkaria: it has basically the same offline usefulness as gmail
22:08
<takkaria>
mm, OK
22:08
<takkaria>
I use a dedicated photo upload tool so I don't get that so much
22:08
<G0k>
i mean inventing this new protocol dramatically limits the usefulness of this thing
22:09
<G0k>
plus it's a complete misnomer
22:09
<G0k>
it's not a TCPConnection
22:09
<Hixie>
yeah, the name should change
22:09
<Hixie>
the great thing about the way it works now is that we can allow arbitrary cross-domain connections
22:09
<takkaria>
I had visions of implementing an IRC client when I first read that name. :)
22:09
<G0k>
well that may be a useful feature too
22:09
<othermaciej>
well, if you have a local photo store and a native photo upload tool, then obviously you have less need for your web-based photo gallery to work offline
22:09
<G0k>
but a real TCPConnection would be neat too
22:10
<othermaciej>
but if you want to use your photo sharing site as the *only* place you manage your photos, then you do want it to work offline
22:11
<takkaria>
othermaciej: yeah. fair enough. :)
22:12
<G0k>
but yeah i mean that dom server side events thing was like...how i originally found WHAT WG
22:12
<G0k>
working on an app which needs something just like that
22:13
<aa>
with implicit gathering of resources for the offline application, how do apps request resources that they want to come from the server while loading?
22:13
<aa>
as a simple example lots of offline apps request an image from the server during load as a health check
22:16
<Hixie>
aa: you mean as opposed to the scriptable API for adding a file to the cache?
22:17
<G0k>
has that already been specified
22:17
<G0k>
?
22:17
<Hixie>
no
22:17
<aa>
I mean the opposite: you don't want something to go to the cache
22:17
<aa>
which is a GET
22:17
<G0k>
you use no-cache in the HTTP headers for that?
22:17
<Hixie>
ah
22:18
<Hixie>
yeah, there's no way to do a GET that doesn't hit the cache in the current idea
22:18
<Hixie>
you can do a POST
22:18
<aa>
seems heavy handed
22:18
<G0k>
maybe you could add a delete-from-cache API?
22:18
<Hixie>
aa: well, what's the use case?
22:18
<aa>
plus it means you can't use ye old new Image() trick
22:18
<Hixie>
if you want to ping the server, getting an image seems like not the right thing to do :-)
22:19
<G0k>
should add an ICMPConnection. what could posssibly go wrong?
22:19
<aa>
the use case is to determine whether your server is reachable
22:19
<aa>
what reader and gearpad do is request x.gif?r=<rand>
22:19
<aa>
probably that is Bad, but there it is
22:19
<Hixie>
aa: well we can have an explicit API for that
22:19
<Hixie>
aa: that seems like something you'd want anyway
22:20
<G0k>
i think that's a spendid idea
22:20
<aa>
Hixie: there are other use cases besides that
22:20
<G0k>
*splendid
22:20
<Hixie>
aa: like what?
22:20
<aa>
Hixie: What if you want to talk to your server to synchronize during load.
22:21
<aa>
not wait until onload
22:21
<aa>
you have to use POST?
22:23
<Hixie>
aa: like to get the data?
22:24
<aa>
yes
22:24
<Hixie>
aa: wouldn't you just do a normal GET, and not care if you're offline or not?
22:25
<Hixie>
hm
22:25
<aa>
So the use case I'm imagining is using xmlhttprequest
22:25
<Hixie>
though i see what you mean
22:25
<aa>
maybe it could have a property to bypass the offline cache
22:25
<Hixie>
you might want to have the data not cached
22:25
<Hixie>
yeah
22:25
<aa>
i think that would be enough
22:25
<Hixie>
hmm
22:25
<Hixie>
yeah
22:25
<Hixie>
maybe that's the way to do it
22:26
<aa>
another idea: maybe requests originating from javascript don't count for the auto-gathering
22:26
<aa>
only html tags literally in the source
22:27
<aa>
that seems weird too though :-)
22:27
<Hixie>
yeah i don't think i like that
22:31
<othermaciej>
it seems like when you consider all the details, implicit gathering might not be any easier to use than an explicit manifest
22:32
<Hixie>
it's conceptually easy, you just pass everything to the app cache instead of your main cache
22:33
<othermaciej>
I mean easier for the web app author - if the set of things they want cached needs to include items that aren't loaded and exclude items that are, then the implicit gathering plus API scattered around their app code might not be easier to use than a separate manifest file
22:34
<othermaciej>
the manifest file can also allow low-cost checking for updates
22:34
<aa>
FWIW, we have gotten pretty strong feedback that people don't like the manifest.
22:34
<othermaciej>
how do they want it to work? all automatic?
22:35
<othermaciej>
there's no way an all-automatic system can check for an update with a single conditional GET
22:35
<othermaciej>
afaict
22:35
<aa>
I think part of the problem is that the manifest is confusing during development because everything just works so long as you have a connection or you have the resources cached.
22:35
<aa>
you don't find out that you forgot something until later.
22:35
<aa>
i had proposed a mode where requests that are *not* in the manifest fail, but that of course brings up other questions.
22:36
<othermaciej>
requests that are not in the manifest should fail when offline
22:36
<othermaciej>
that makes it easy to test offline mode by actually going offline
22:38
<aa>
it's not easy because most of the time during development you are not offline. also you have to be careful to clear your cache otherwise you still don't see it.
22:39
<othermaciej>
yes, I'm saying you should not be able to get stuff from the cache when offline (at least when using a web app with a manifest)
22:39
<aa>
what does "offline" mean?
22:39
<aa>
file > offline?
22:40
<aa>
maybe this is just a developer feature ... to not have the regular browser cache be consulted
22:40
<othermaciej>
I don't understand your question
22:41
<othermaciej>
also I need to step our for a bit, brb
22:41
<aa>
at least in gears there is no concept of offline. so I dont know what you mean when you say the browser should change behavior when offline.
22:41
<othermaciej>
Safari already won't load anything from the cache if your network is disconnected (maybe not the best behavior but we have not really gotten complaints)
22:42
<kingryan>
othermaciej: I'd like to complain
22:42
<kingryan>
:)
22:42
<aa>
k, we can continue this later.
22:42
<aa>
i don't want to keep you.
22:43
<othermaciej>
one random parting thought before I step out
22:43
<Hixie>
note that "offline" is somewhat nebulous -- you can be "online" (from the browser's point of view) but really your network is gonna be returning 302s everywhere (captive portal) or 500s (server down) or not resolving dns (wireless down) etc
22:43
<Hixie>
i tried to handle that case too
22:43
<aa>
Hixie: I think that is really important. Thanks.
22:44
<aa>
(as a frequent user of unreliable wireless)
22:44
<othermaciej>
maybe it can be an option for the manifest to say all resources from the current page load should be included, but list exceptions and additions
22:44
<Hixie>
aa: yeah, from a personal perspective i know the feeling. :-)
22:44
<Hixie>
othermaciej: i certainly don't mind there being a way to list resources declaratively (as well as through an API)
22:44
<othermaciej>
Hixie: normal operating mode for the user handling that case is key, but I don't think that has to influence what happens when you pull your ethernet cable to test offline behavior
22:45
<Hixie>
othermaciej: but i think that requiring a manifest is different from supporting a manifest as a secondary resource that causes loads
22:45
<othermaciej>
Hixie: my brief mailing list proposal was to have an optional manifest (that would in practice be needed for multipage web apps)
22:46
<othermaciej>
w/ the additional semantic that sharing a manifest makes you share an offline cache
22:46
<Hixie>
yeah i'm still studying the multi-page case
22:46
<Hixie>
i'm not sure i like the idea of having more than one "top-level page" per cache, but i'm still thinking about it
22:47
<othermaciej>
I'm also not sure if in your proposal "subresources of the page" only includes things loaded up to onload time, or also things loaded later
22:47
<othermaciej>
(either answer would raise issues I think)
22:47
<othermaciej>
anyway
22:47
<othermaciej>
bbl
22:48
<Hixie>
ttyl
22:48
<Hixie>
it's supposed to include anything you hit while online, the load event is only used when checking for an update to prime the new cache
22:58
<Lachy>
good morning
22:59
<Hixie>
hey Lachy
23:00
<gsnedders>
hi Lachy
23:01
<Lachy>
Hixie, that's a nice way to deal with trolling on the whatwg list :-)
23:02
<Hixie>
he ignored my request
23:02
<Lachy>
yeah, I noticed
23:02
<Hixie>
so yeah
23:02
Hixie
gets good advice on how to handle trolls from his teammates at work
23:02
<Hixie>
(i work in the open source group, so they're all experts at handling communites)
23:03
<Hixie>
communities, even
23:03
<Hixie>
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4216011961522818645 being a good example
23:04
<Hixie>
come to think of it i think i was in that room when that video was taped
23:04
<Lachy>
I'm wondering if I should respond to Joe's off list email to us re our IRC commetns, and suggest that if he has any alternative solutions (instead of just complaints), that he should send them.
23:05
<Hixie>
did i get that e-mail? i forget
23:05
<Lachy>
hmm. is hixie @ google.com a valid email address for you? I wasn't aware of it, but that's where joe sent it
23:06
<Hixie>
no, that won't work
23:06
<Hixie>
so i guess i didn't
23:06
<Hixie>
ian⊙hc is my address
23:06
<Lachy>
I just saw hixie in the CC list and assumed it got to you. I'll forward it
23:07
<Hixie>
no thanks!
23:07
<Lachy>
oh, too late
23:07
<Hixie>
oh well :-)
23:07
<Hixie>
and there i was with an excuse
23:09
<Hixie>
i see he didn't mail mike
23:10
<Hixie>
which would have made him realise that what he was calling the whatwg actually was the w3c in that case :-)
23:20
<Hixie>
ok. since clearly the offline web apps stuff is still being discussed, let's do the datatemplate stuff hyatt and i came up with
23:22
<Lachy>
what's datatemplate?
23:23
<Hixie>
the replacement for repetition blocks
23:24
<othermaciej>
replacement for WF2 repetition model but based on XUL templates so it provides much more of the general capabilities that XForms repetition does
23:24
<Hixie>
yeah
23:24
<othermaciej>
inspired by comment from John Boyer
23:24
<Hixie>
(though it requires external xml files sadly, unless you use xhtml, or unless you are very careful with html)
23:25
<othermaciej>
I am shocked to see this sort of paying attention to feedback
23:25
<Lachy>
wow
23:25
<othermaciej>
we'll have to discuss this at the next cabal meeting
23:25
<Hixie>
dude i have to pay attention to _hyatt_
23:25
<Hixie>
he's one of the _editors_
23:25
<Hixie>
he's got a jet pack and everything!
23:26
<Lachy>
why haven't you dismissed that feedback like we do with everything else? ;-)
23:26
<takkaria>
othermaciej: oh, didn't you hear? #whatwg is always a cabal meeting
23:26
<othermaciej>
takkaria: yes, that's what we want you to... oops, I've said to much
23:27
<Hixie>
( http://ajaxian.com/archives/proposal-for-the-w3c-to-adopt-html-5#comment-249313 )
23:27
<takkaria>
othermaciej: oh, so there's another backroom irc channel around? :P
23:27
<Hixie>
amusingly ajaxian using <dt> and <dd> backwards
23:27
<Hixie>
i wish
23:27
<Hixie>
if there was we wouldn't fear people quoting us all the time :-P
23:36
<Lachy>
I like how we get accused of having a secret cabal (in a publicly logged IRC channel), yet it's ok for there to be a clear conspiracy among some others to file provocative bug reports and complain
23:37
<jgraham>
Lachy: I think there's not really a conspiracy to complain but a set of individuals who are motivated to do negative things for whatever reason
23:38
<takkaria>
I think they just haven't seen the light yet...
23:38
<Lachy>
yeah, well, they appear to be working well together to achieve their common goals
23:40
<Hixie>
i very highly doubt there's a conspiracy there
23:40
<jgraham>
If their common goal is "disrupt the WG" then yeah. But I don't think there's a real agenda, except perhaps a common feeling that they want to exert more influence
23:40
<jgraham>
(that is not supposed to imply that they do not exert influence, only that they feel they do not)
23:41
<Hixie>
they clearly exert a lot of influence, they've been the topic of this channel for days :-)
23:41
<Hixie>
much more so than any technical issue has
23:41
<Philip`>
Lachy: Why is that a clear conspiracy? I assume they just read the IRC logs and find links to the existing bug reports and then maybe add their own comments
23:43
<Lachy>
I was just basing my conspiracy theory on othermaciej's email, I wasn't entirely serious.
23:43
<Lachy>
this one http://www.w3.org/mid/DA234C3B-59E7-4E9E-A779-00181EDF06BE⊙ac
23:44
<Hixie>
i think he was applying reducto ad absurdum
23:44
<Hixie>
not suggesting there actually was a conspiracy :-)
23:44
<othermaciej>
I was trying to
23:44
<othermaciej>
but apparently I was more right than I thought :-)
23:45
<Hixie>
oh?
23:45
<Hixie>
why?
23:45
<othermaciej>
well I don't think the whole thing was staged
23:46
<othermaciej>
but Rob did privately complain about my remark to John and the chairs, without even Cc'ing me
23:46
<Hixie>
aah
23:46
<Hixie>
so many private complaints
23:46
<Hixie>
how are we supposed to follow the gossip if they don't cc www-archive
23:46
<Dashiva>
They should take a hint from us and do their secret scheming in public logs
23:47
jgraham
waves at all the log readers
23:47
<takkaria>
I don't see how people can complain about transparency and make private complaints at the same time
23:47
<Lachy>
it was suggested to me once by someone a few days ago that we set up a special IRC channel for such people :-)
23:48
<Dashiva>
I recall one such channel
23:49
<Dashiva>
#whatwg-secret-tree-house-no-patents-allowed
23:49
<othermaciej>
if the private complaints at least were used instead of private complaints, that might be a net benefit
23:49
<othermaciej>
*instead of public complaints
23:49
<Hixie>
hah
23:49
takkaria
grins
23:49
<othermaciej>
having both is the worst of both worlds
23:51
<Dashiva>
It's too bad this is actually serious business. Could have a lot of fun setting up a fake-logged cabal channel
23:53
Hixie
updates himself with the controversy on www-archive
23:53
<Hixie>
you know what bugs me more than whiners?
23:54
<Hixie>
whiners who complain about things that are actually non-issues (e.g. nobody has actually complained that they are forced to use an AT tool that doesn't work with the issues page)
23:54
<Hixie>
and even more than that
23:54
<Hixie>
whiners who complain about things yet are not willing to step up to the plate and actually address them
23:55
takkaria
avoids commenting at all for that last reason. :)
23:55
<Hixie>
heh
23:55
<Hixie>
i don't mind people making suggestions
23:55
<Hixie>
"it would be better if it could support IE"
23:55
<Hixie>
it's people who whine that i find annoying
23:55
<takkaria>
yeah
23:55
<Hixie>
"it sucks because it doesn't support IE"
23:56
<takkaria>
I have nothing to add that other people don't mention at some point, anyway. I don't even do much web-based stuff anymore
23:56
<Hixie>
heh
23:56
<takkaria>
though I quite enjoyed looking through longdesc stuff the other day
23:56
<takkaria>
I signed up to look at spec development, not politics. it's sad that things are this bad, really
23:57
<Hixie>
yeah
23:58
<Philip`>
Steve Faulkner indicated in one email that he would like to help fix the tool (though he couldn't do it easily since he didn't know how), which sounds positive
23:58
<Hixie>
yeah, that went nowhere quickly