[uf-discuss] Visible Data...a Microformat requirement?

[Ciaran McNulty]

On 10/23/06, Andy Mabbett <andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk> wrote:
> Consider a page of events, with variable start times; and an
> introductory paragraph which says "all events last for two hours".
> You're saying that the microformat should not include a "dtend" with the
> end time, for  each event, because that end time is not separately and
> explicitly displayed to the user?

In that example there isn't any invisible data, the duration is
clearly present on the page.  When we talk about 'hidden data' we mean
things like, if the author didn't want to mention the duration
anywhere on the page but still have all the events being 2 hours
wrong.

The general use-case of microformats is in marking up existing data in
a way that makes it more semantic and therefore machine-readable.  If
something's considered important enough to tell a parser about, it
should probably be important enough to tell a human about.

For the specific example you mention, the '2 hours' declaration could
probably be used as the DURATION (probably with an ABBR) and then
transcluded into each VEVENT using the include-pattern.

-Ciaran McNulty