The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Grid Layout , which allows designers to define invisible grids of horizontal and vertical lines. Elements from a document can then be anchored to points in the grid, which aligns them visually to each other, even if they are not next to each other in the source. Learn more about the Style Activity.

• Decided on Japan for June F2F, exact location TBD next week.
• Resolved: Proposal accepted for CSS2.1 Issue 225with "If the element has children" removed, pending Anton's approval.
• Resolved: dsinger's answer to Olaf adopted as official for CSS2.1 Issue 286. No change to the spec.
• Resolved:Publish updated WD of CSS3 Speech.
• Resolved:Publish updated WD of CSS3 Text.
• CSS Namespaceshas the required test passes for PR, need to prepare a disposition of comments and implementation reports.

Full minutes

The HTML Working Grouppublished eight documents:

• Working Drafts of the HTML5 specification , the accompanying explanatory document HTML5 differences from HTML4 , and the related non-normative reference HTML: The Markup Language.
• Working Drafts of the specifications HTML+RDFa 1.1 and HTML Microdata , which define mechanisms for embedding machine-readable data in HTML documents, and the specification HTML Canvas 2D Context, which defines a 2D immediate-mode graphics API for use with the HTML5 <canvas> element.
• HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives, which is intended to help authors provide useful text alternatives for images in HTML documents.
• Polyglot Markup: HTML-Compatible XHTML Documents, which is intended to help authors produce XHTML documents that are also compatible with non-XML HTML syntax and parsing rules.

Learn more about HTML5.

When we start writing and or read about the activities around the Open Web Platform , we realize that the Web has never been that active. Everyone is proposing, developping, testing. And even if this weekly news from HTML5and broader topics seemed to be long, it doesn’t cover everything. It is also important to realize that if you are passionate about one of these topics, the full information is accessible and open. Quite exciting. Some of these topics could be the source of long technical blog posts. If you do, please leave a comment or let me know.

HTML Working Group Decisions

Issues about codecs vs octet and accessibility API mappinghave been closed by amicable resolutions. A couple of polls have been opened and some already closed

• Table borders openeduntil April 4, 2011
• u element openeduntil April 4, 2011
• playbackrate undefined openeduntil April 5, 2011
• “What verbiage should HTML5 use for the first two paragraphs of the img element definition?” openeduntil April 5, 2011
• “Where/who will define the requirements on the possible values of text alternative examples?” openeduntil April 5, 2011
• “What to do about validation when the image element is missing the alt attribute?” openeduntil April 5, 2011

RDFa prefixes in HTML5 - ISSUE-120

RDFa is a language to add additional structure to markup already existing. It is a way to extend the hosting language. It uses optional prefixes . Adoption has not been an issue with 501% growth. It has been then decided to clarify the way RDFa prefixes are used in the HTML5 specification. A formal objection by Tab Atkins has been recorded.

summaryattribute on tableelement - ISSUE-32

The summaryattribute on tableelement was a way to give information about the content of the table. It is usually called hidden metadata, because the information is not directly accessible to sighted users such as altattribute for example. The name “discoverable metadata” is proposed for labelling such attributes. The change proposal which invited to drop the summaryattribute has been chosen. This decisionhas been carefully written. Read it carefully. There are suggestions as usual to reopen the issues with meaningul data and input.

Conversations

Proposals

• Improving sandbox for popupsby Jacob Rossi (Microsoft)
• text/html-sandboxed should just be a sandboxed MIME type attributeby Jacob Rossi (Microsoft)

Announcements

• New draft for Use of the Content-Disposition Header Field in the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTPWG bis is working actively on tidying HTTP specification.
• Task Force on Home Networking Content and Services Discovery and Control. This is part of the activities around Web and TV.
• new Working Draft for Clipboard API and Eventsby Hallvord R. M. Steen (Opera).
• Prefer Header for HTTPby James Snell
• Last Call for Web Sockets protocol. All comments should be submitted to hybi@ietf.org by April 15 at the latest.
• Draft minutes of HTTP WG in Prague

Hot Topics

• One of the most active topic is the PUT/DELETE with HTML form . Mike Amundsen has created a document to explain how it would work with html . The discussion is also happening on HTMLWG . There were similar discussions around Atom and PUTin the past.
• Any future plans, or has IndexedDB replaced WebSQL?
• Web applications and architecture
• selection.modify behavior across platforms
• When writing tests in preparation for Opera’s implementation of <details>and <summary>, Wilhelm Joys Andersen had a few questions.
• Peer-to-peer communication, video conferencing, and related topics (3)by Ian Hickson (Google)
• Implementation difficulties for MediaController
• DOM Range: redefining behavior under DOM mutation
• Canvas change for improved hit testing that also facilitates accessibilityby Rich Schwerdtfeger (IBM)
• Result of calling MultipleReads on FileReader related to File API multiread
• Explanation of the Web Apps WG Testing process
• Selectors API IDL Issuesby Lachlan Hunt (Opera)
• WHATWG Weekly: the rubber hits the roadby Shelley Powers

This column is written by Karl Dubost , working in the Developer Relations & Tools at Opera Software.

Introduce myself

My name is Hiroki Yamada. I am a W3C Fellow from Internet Academy(Japanese company). Internet Academy is a school for Web Designers and Web Developers. I've been in charge of developing on curriculum and educational materials. And now, I'm working on making the wiki-based documentation of W3C specifications at W3C.

Background & Status

W3C has released a lot of specifications with rapid growth of the Web technology. Each specification is very large, which is a good thing. However, understanding specifications is difficult for beginners. In order to facilitate the learning process, we should train Web Designers and Web Developers from beginner to professional level. Achieving this goal is important for the growth and development of the World Wide Web. This is why I began this project.

I've finished developing two documents. The first document is the Educational Materials for Beginners , and the second is the List of HTML Elements . However, these documents are just a first step for this project, which is just beginning. We also have an Open Web Platform page. I will continue writing documentation for other specifications that relate to the Open Web Platform.

In this entry, I explain three features of the documentation of HTML.

HTML documentation's features

First, these documentations present the information simply. They must do this because the project's intended targets are only beginners in Web design. For beginners, specifications are not easy to read because they have too much information. My documentations contain only the basic information that beginners need. In addition, they present links to specifications that give insightful information. I have also continued to focus on keeping the educational materials both easy to read and easy to understand.

Second, they utilize many examples in order to better describe how HTML works. This is important because I think that it is difficult for a beginner to understand how the elements of HTML are used. For exactly the same reason, they also provide examples of bad HTML usage and screenshot images.

Finally, I set up a working web development curriculum for beginners since they don't know how to effectively organize their study. From here they can create a fake site according to the flow of the curriculum. And also, they cover not only HTML, but also provide instructions for the next step. I've finished editing the CSS Educational Materials for Beginners, so people who study Web technology can advance step by step from one level to the next.

I very much welcome bug reports and suggestions for improvements by sending feedback to the publicly archived mailing list public-webdev-docs@w3.org [ Web archive].

• Discussed location of June F2F. Most people seem to be OK with Kyoto/Osaka (in place of Tokyo), but we need a meeting room June 2-4. (Needed: space for ~25 people, projector, power, and wifi)
• Resolved: Updated proposal accepted for CSS2.1 Issue 203.
• CSS2.1 Issue 179is closed with Bert's latest edits and Anton's approval.
• Resolved:For CSS2.1 Issue 192

  If a shortened line box is too small to contain any content after the float, then that content the line boxis shifted downward (and its width recomputed)until either it some contentfits or there are no more floats present. Any content in the current line before a floated box is reflowed in the first available sameline on the other side of the float.

• Resolved:Not dropping :first-line :first-letter from CSS2.1. It may be underdefined, but it's in CSS1 and CSS3 and we have a usable level of interop demonstrated in the test suite, so dropping it here doesn't gain us anything.
• Resolved:Advance CSS2.1 to PR.
• Plan for errata is to maintain errata list after REC and occasionally publish updated RECs via PER phase.

Full minutes

This is the 4th edition of our weekly summary about the Open Web Platform . The intent is to give an overview of the discussions, proposals, decisions which have happened during the last week around HTML5 and sometimes more broadly the Open Web Platform. This weekly summary covers events in multiple W3Cgroups, and some outside events as well. Feel free to chime in the comments and add information or ask for more details.

As Shelley Powers mentionnedthis week was quite quiet, but there were a couple of decisions. A few new drafts and proposals and an interesting discussions about Web applications caching systems. The debate around longdesc attribute is far to be finished.

HTML Working Group Decisions

backslashes processing in Content Type headers - ISSUE-126

Should HTML5 specification require backslashes to be processed as escapes in Content-Type headers in <meta>elements? It has been decidedto keep the specification as it is currently. Some Web client implementers noticed that they intended to change the parsing accordingly to the specification and what other user agents are doing.

Microdata usability study - ISSUE-139

Should the microdata usability study be placed in the HTML5 or the Microdata specifications? This is a minor issue which has been solvedby moving a sentence from HTML5 specification to Microdata specification.

Conforming document - ISSUE-140

The term “conforming document” and how it is used by other specifications has been an issue . The issues surrounding conformance are not totally solved and needs better bug reports. In the meantime, the WG has decidedto adopt for this specific issue: “Conformance terminology when applicable specifications are used”.

Conversations

Proposals

• Have a single API for caret positioning and focus ring support designed in such a way that authors will actually use it. related to ISSUE-131
• Sean Hayes (Microsoft) sent a Change proposal for ISSUE-152 about the handling of text tracks unified with the handling of media tracks. Sylvia Pfeiffer also sent a Change Proposal

Announcements

• caret issue straw pollopen until March 31
• There will be discussionsabout rel values ownership at the IETF meeting in Prague.
• Paul Cotton has asked if anyone objects to do a new round of publishing.
• There was also a request to publish HTML to Platform Accessibility APIs Implementation Guideas 1st Working Draft.
• A new draft of W3C widgetsspecification has been published.

Hot Topics

• The discussion around longdescis boiling.
• Louis-Rémi Babe (Mozilla intern) is asking about Offline Web Applications status . He is mentionning that developers seem to not understand caching system for Web applications. It led Art Barstow to askif there was an overview of all existing cache systems.
• Ehsan Akhgari is asking about selection.modify behavior across platforms
• and Nicholas Zakas about why @scopedis required for <style>as flow content?

This column is written by Karl Dubost , working in the Developer Relations & Tools at Opera Software.

Ukrainian:

Вибір і застосування кодування(Choosing & applying a character encoding)

Призначення кодування символів в HTML(Declaring character encodings in HTML)

Призначення кодування символів в CSS(Declaring character encodings in CSS)

Кодування символів: Основні поняття(Character encodings: Essential concepts)

Russian:

Выбор и применение кодирования(Choosing & applying a character encoding)

Назначение кодировки символов в HTML(Declaring character encodings in HTML)

Назначение кодировки символов в CSS(Declaring character encodings in CSS)

Кодирование символов: Основные понятия(Character encodings: Essential concepts)

These articles were translated thanks to Alexandr Shlapak.

[search keys:  qa-choosing-encodings qa-css-charset tutorial-char-enc tutorial-char-enc]

W3C today launches the Audio Working Group , whose chartered mission is to develop a client-side script API adding more advanced audio capabilities than are currently offered by audio elements. The API will support the features required by advanced interactive applications including the ability to process and synthesize audio streams directly in script, and will extend the HTML5 <audio>and <video>media elements. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.