[microformats-discuss] additional machine info in XMDP

[Bud Gibson]

On Jul 13, 2005, at 7:10, Tantek Çelik wrote:

> Let's focus our time and efforts on microformats on practical uses  
> that
> exist today as much as possible.  If you really want, perhaps keep  
> track of
> extra ideas like that in some side notes, perhaps a brainstorming  
> page.

Tantek et al.,

I'd like to bring the discussion back to its original start which was  
discovery of microformats and the importance of the XMDP.  The simple  
practical concern is to know that microformats are being used, which  
ones, and what they cover.  Here's what I think I learned in that  
regard:

1.  The XMDP provides a great summary of the format that can be read  
by people as well as machines.

2.  Pointing at the XMDP currently is the best hint that the page  
contains microformatted content because it is explicit.

3.  A problem with using XMDPs is that the standard only allows for  
them to be linked from the profile attribute in the head element.   
People do not always have access to that.  A case in point is the h*- 
creators which create body markup but do not alter the contents of  
the head element.

4.  A seemingly easy solution is to put an <a> element somewhere in  
the microformatted content that points back to the XMDP.  This  
fulfills the initial practical question raised initially but adds <a>  
elements, an addition some find aesthetically displeasing.

It seems another outcome of all of this would be to consider some  
simple extension to the XMDP spec that allows it to be linked from an  
<a> element with discussion focusing on how that would work.

Bud