WHATWG Weekly: UndoManager, HTML/XML, Component Model
WHATWG Weekly is somewhat irregularly updated as its writer has a somewhat chaotic vacation schedule. The specification meanwhile keeps getting refined, with the latest significant change being a security update to registerProtocolHandler() and registerContentHandler(). These methods provide better platform integration, by letting web pages become responsible for handling e.g. mailto or irc URLs. This security update introduces a whitelist for registerProtocolHandler() along with the ability for everyone to mint their own whitelisted URL schemes that are required to start with web+. registerContentHandler() meanwhile gets a blacklist for the time being as a suitable way to define a whitelist has not been found.
UndoManager and DOM Transaction
Ryosuke Niwa has been working on an API proposal to manage the undo transaction history. This proposal is deemed better than what is currently in the HTML specification and is being sorted out on the WHATWG list. Once this is completed web applications will finally get proper undo/redo behavior.
HTML/XML Task Force
A while ago the W3C TAG set up a Task Force to investigate how HTML and XML can be more closely aligned. A preliminary report is available: HTML/XML Task Force Report.
W3C Community Groups
The W3C set up Community Groups the other day making it easier for people to develop standards at the W3C without all the overhead that previously entailed. Aryeh Gregor already set up the HTML Editing APIs Community Group to work on HTML Editing APIs. Feel free to join the group or start your own!
Component Model Update
Dimitri “good morning” Glazkov posted an update on working out the component model for the web (formerly XBL). To learn more check out the component model page on the WHATWG wiki which contains a good overview of the technology.