[uf-discuss] Re: Microformats UI in Firefox 3

[Tantek Ç elik]

On 9/2/07 4:07 AM, "Jamie Knight" <jamie at jkg3.com> wrote:

> hiya,
> 
> I am not so sure that introducing an extra div / element is the way
> forward as it is requiring even more of the authors.

I tend to agree with Jamie's assessment.


> I was under the  
> impression that part of the idea behind microformats was that the
> tools were to do the donkey work of the process.

Certainly one way to put it. ;)

Yes one of the goals of microformats is to be a bit more publisher-centric
in design rather than parser-centric.  That doesn't mean that we try to make
things completely no work at all for publishers, because clearly we ask a
little of them, but it does mean that we ask less of them than most other
standards efforts, which ask publishers to learn new languages etc.

See the principles for more on this:

 http://microformats.org/wiki/principles


> I know this isn't wonderfully helpful, as i am not suggesting an
> alternative (thats for far greater minds than my own) to me the
> thought of adding a div to my page is alot more of an ask than a few
> semantic class names. I feel that other may feel the same way.

It is not only quite a lot to ask publishers to "add another div" to their
pages, but actually undesirable from an overall user experience standpoint.

*Publishers* of data can't know beforehand all the ways *users* of that data
will want to use it.

Hence we ask publishers to

mark up data semantically, which enables  *general* re-use.

Rather than asking them to

mark up data semantically and with verbs for *specific* re-uses.


> just a few thoughts,
> 
> ^licks^
> 
> Jamie & Lion

Thanks Jamie & Lion.


In addition, I found this thread *very* difficult to follow, as at some
points it seemed like there were implicit proposals for a taxonomy of
possible user actions (a really bad idea to try to solve such a huge problem
at this point) or perhaps even a microformat itself for possible user
actions for which I've seen no research done etc.


As far as discussing microformats user interface in browsers in general,
please take a look at:

http://microformats.org/wiki/user-interface#Browser_Integration

Please consider adding concrete user interface ideas/screenshots, proposals,
and even challenges/issues there so that we may have a better record of the
"latest" version of a proposal along with critical analysis etc.

Tantek