[uf-discuss] hAtom draft - class="title"

[David Janes -- BlogMatrix]

Tantek,

If it's an explicit goal of the microformats.org process to come up with 
a CSS name -> microformat meaning, it'd be nice explicitly recognize 
this, especially with something like a dictionary.

I think it's not a bad idea, but I don't universally think it should be 
done (see point #5 below).

Here's my thoughts:

(1)
The concept of the word "title" meaning the title of a document is part 
of HTML. Obviously, we're doing it differently (CSS names vs. an 
explicit element), but the thought is there. Is not HTML the ur-Microformat?

(2)
hcalendar:summary sort of means a title and could be potentially reused 
in hAtom. However, using the word "summary" for title in the context of 
webloging, atom feeds and so forth in large degree clashes with the 
expected meaning in that domain and would lead to at least a little 
confusion.

(3)
hcard:title reserving the meaning of the word "title" to mean the title 
of a person is ... a little narrow. However, if we do want to keep a 
canonical dictionary for microformats, hAtom and other standards should 
probably roll with the punches.

(4)
New class names could be invented: atomtitle, atomsummary, entrytitle, 
entrysummary, entry-title, entry-summary, subject, synopsis and so forth 
come to mind. If the canonical dictionary is a overriding goal, choosing 
something from this list may be the way to go.

If we went with just entry-title and entry-summary, users may be a 
little confused by author, contributor, and so forth. If we made it 
consistent by adding "entry-" in front of them, we're effectively 
defining a namespace, in which case why not use "atom-" and be done with?

(5)
Having unique-name -> unique-meaning doesn't get us around the problem 
of nesting. For example, if we chose the word "summary" to replace 
hatom:title, we would still have the problem of nested hCalendars in 
hAtom content.

Everyone's thoughts are appreciated and solicited on this matter, as the 
sooner it gets resolved, the better I'll feel going around plugging hAtom.

Regards, etc...
David

Tantek Çelik wrote:
> Paul,
> 
> You're right about the issue.
> 
> In general we should be avoiding vocabulary divergence or confusion wherever
> possible.
> 
> This means working deliberately to avoid the two cardinal sins that
> namespaces typical both enable and encourage:
> 
> 1. The same term is used to mean two different things
> 2. Two terms are used to mean the same things
> 
> The current "established" microformats have avoided this problem by
> essentially reusing from earlier microformats when possible, *before*
> reusing from other standards.
> 
> E.g. hReview has reused a lot from hCard and hCalendar.
> 
> See http://microformats.org/wiki/existing-classes for an overview.
> 
> In the case of 'title', Paul is right.  hCard (by way of vCard) has defined
> 'title' to mean something in particular.
> 
> In the case of hReview, we used 'summary' from hCalendar to serve this
> purpose.
> 
> Would it be possible to do so for hAtom as well?