[uf-discuss] Size considerations

[Scott Reynen]

On Oct 18, 2006, at 6:49 AM, Charles Roper wrote:

> Is is considered better to have longer, easier-to-read, more
> descriptive, more semantically correct attribute values over shorter,
> more concise, bandwidth-saving ones?

I consider semantics more important than length.  This comes up  
enough that it should maybe be in a FAQ.

> On small pages, a few extra bytes of HTML won't make a big difference,
> but on very large pages (in terms of markup), all those extra HTML
> classes and their uF values could pile on the KBs. I would argue that
> on-the-fly compression of HTML (mod_gzip, mod_deflate, PHP's zlib et
> al) is mature enough now to be considered a better solution for
> reducing page size over using shorter uF attributes. I would also
> argue that longer, more readable attributes are more in keeping with
> the uF goal of being for humans first, machines second.

I agree with all of this, but I think a more fundamental issue is  
that this problem is always presented as a hypothetical, and we  
shouldn't spend out time trying to solve hypothetical problems.  We  
know readability is a problem when someone can't understand  
something.  We'll know size is a problem when someone says they can't  
implement microformats due to size.  No one has ever said that, as  
far as I know.

Peace,
Scott