Re: [whatwg] Using @type on code to specify the computer language
Taylor Hunt taylorcharlesh...@gmail.com writes: Hello, I was wondering about the best way of indicating a code element's contained computer language for syntax highlighting. The specifications are quite clear that using @lang for that is abuse, so many existing implementations use a data-lang attribute, class name, or something similar. I was curious if repurposing the type attribute onto code elements for this purpose would be a good idea. The script and style elements already use it to indicate what language they contain, so there would seem to be precedent. (An argument against this would be input already overloading type's meaning, but that ship may have sailed.) Including non-standard languages within these tags with a differentiating value for type is widely-practiced, such as for HTML templating, or more exotic implementations like in-browser interpreters or thegrid.io's use of style type=text/gss. Using code[type] would have the advantage of an existing vocabulary for unambiguously indicating a code language, through MIME types. It also works today, and should have no problems in older browsers. This proposal would also have the benefit of making it possible to automate generation of the type attribute contents using file(1) or magic(5), which makes it easy to annotate code elements automagically. The most obvious benefit would be syntax highlighting, but there could be other use-cases: more intelligent enunciation by speech synthesizers, for example. It would also make it easier to search for source code examples in a specific language among a large corpus of content. I would love this! -- Nils Dagsson Moskopp // erlehmann http://dieweltistgarnichtso.net
Re: [whatwg] Using @type on code to specify the computer language
Long ago I proposed an attribute for code language because I was unhappy with all the class=language-whatever thing. I proposed @lang because I thought there could be an issue with speech synthesis and languages, but it was effectively pointed out that such attribute does not fit this case. +1 for @type, it is widely consistent to use that for MIME types. But I guess that it will bring nowhere (as usual) unless vendors show any interest for this issue.
Re: [whatwg] Using @type on code to specify the computer language
There is a de facto standard here that is already supported by most syntax highlighting libraries, based on this part of the spec: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/semantics.html#the-code-element “There is no formal way to indicate the language of computer code being marked up. Authors who wish to mark code elements with the language used, e.g. so that syntax highlighting scripts can use the right rules, can use the class attribute, e.g. by adding a class prefixed with language- to the element.” I’d prefer following that pattern over inventing a new one.
Re: [whatwg] Using @type on code to specify the computer language
Mathias, mind that while libraries support using the @class attribute, there's no standard between them about whether to use a prefix before the language or if a prefix is necessary at all. Besides, @class has no semantic value. It's true that the spec suggests using semantic class names (instead of layout-inspired, I mean), but there's no real meaning for that. 2015-05-09 14:48 GMT+02:00 Mathias Bynens mathi...@opera.com: There is a de facto standard here that is already supported by most syntax highlighting libraries, based on this part of the spec: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/semantics.html#the-code-element “There is no formal way to indicate the language of computer code being marked up. Authors who wish to mark code elements with the language used, e.g. so that syntax highlighting scripts can use the right rules, can use the class attribute, e.g. by adding a class prefixed with language- to the element.” I’d prefer following that pattern over inventing a new one.
