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

[Alex Faaborg]

> 1. You guys are proposing a radical change in microformats, and in  
> the way microformats work

As Pelle mentioned, we are discussing the possibility of allowing  
designers to add UI widgets to act on microformats in the content  
area.  I certainly don't think this constitutes a radical change  
since they would be optional, and we are working closely with the  
microformats community to make sure we get it right.

> and have given us just a week to discuss/object

If these changes land in a release of Operator that we heavily  
promote at the Firefox 3 launch, then we will have considerably more  
time to discuss the various options.  If the microformats community  
really wants to see this feature land in Firefox 3, then we  
unfortunately will need to move rather quickly.

> 2. If radical change is implemented in firefox, all existing  
> microformatted content will fail to work in firefox3

Not at all, these microformats could potentially still show up  
elsewhere in the browser UI, for instance in a toolbar, or sidebar,  
or a right click context menu on the microformatted content.

> 3. said radical change includes inline styles- functionally  
> identical to presentational html tags.

We are open to all suggestions. Thanks for the css example, I've  
added it to our list of possible solutions.  The user-action-x class,  
action:// protocol, and navigator.send javascript method were only  
proposed to get the conversation going.

> 4. In order to play nice with firefox 3, all publishers of  
> microformatted content would need to add extra stuff to their markup.

This isn't about a requirement for playing nice with Firefox 3, if  
Web designers decided they wanted to create buttons to act on their  
microformatted content, then they would potentially be able to do so.

> 5. That extra stuff would *only* be necessary for firefox

I would be very happy to see the other browsers add similar support.   
Unfortunately since they aren't developed in as transparent of a  
manner, we have no idea if they are currently considering this type  
of functionality or not.  One guaranteed way to get them all to  
seriously consider adding the feature is for us to ship it in Firefox.

I hope that clears things up, and my apologies for the confusion.

-Alex


On Sep 4, 2007, at 4:27 AM, Breton Slivka wrote:

> sorry for busting in late on this conversation, but let me get this  
> straight, I'm not sure I follow.
>
> 1. You guys are proposing a radical change in microformats, and in  
> the way microformats work, and have given us just a week to discuss/ 
> object
> 2. If radical change is implemented in firefox, all existing  
> microformatted content will fail to work in firefox3
> 3. said radical change includes inline styles- functionally  
> identical to presentational html tags.
> 4. In order to play nice with firefox 3, all publishers of  
> microformatted content would need to add extra stuff to their markup.
> 5. That extra stuff would *only* be necessary for firefox
>
>
> Are any of the above points incorrect?
> _______________________________________________
> microformats-discuss mailing list
> microformats-discuss at microformats.org
> http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss