[uf-discuss] origin of class attribute approach in microformats ?

Fri Jul 21 16:35:34 PDT 2006

Hello,

I'm new to this list. Since I have heard about microformats last year, I 
have always wanted to understand why the approach has evolved to become 
the following "class attribute-approach":

<HTML>
    <body>
        <ul class="grocerylist">
            <li class="fruit">Orange</li>
            <li class="meat">Chicken</li>
            <li class="vegetable">Corn</li>
        </ul>
    </body>
</HTML>

instead of the following mixed-namespace approach:

<HTML xmlns:ia="http://someindustrystandard.org">
    <body>
        <ul>
            <ia:grocerylist>
            <li><ia:fruit>Orange</ia:fruit></li>
            <li><ia:meat>Chicken</ia:meat></li>
            <li><ia:vegetable>Corn</ia:vegetable></li>
            <ia:grocerylist>
        </ul>
    </body>
</HTML>

Both approaches work fine in a browser (firefox at least), and both 
approaches could be generated from the same XML. But having an XML 
background I see that the second approach has the following advantages:

    * I can define my microformat in a formal XML schema language (XSD,
      etc.) - Is there a way to describe formally microformats?
    * I can generate code from that schema
    * I can filter out easily all the elements of a namespace, validate
      it with my schema, and bind it to this code
    * I can overload elements with multiple tags (ex.
      <ia:fruit><other:example>Orange</other:example></ia:fruit> and
      attributes <ia:fruit color="orange" size="2">Orange</ia:fuit>
    * ... and in a nutshell, I can reuse a lot of the XML technologies
      out there.

Can a microformat historian help me figure out why things came to be the 
way they are (attribute class) not the other way (mixed-namespace 
approach) ?

Thank you

Guillaume