`time` element syntax

[Waylan Limberg]

Interesting suggestion David. Although, you're right, I'm not sure
what real value this serves. Why can't we just use raw html here?

That said, there certainly is no reason why this couldn't be an
unofficial addon - in which case you would want to do it right. So
here are some thoughts on your suggested implementation:

On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 5:08 AM, David Chambers
<david.chambers.05 at gmail.com> wrote:

> `/^(\d{4})-(\d\d)-(\d\d)T(\d\d):(\d\d)(?::(\d\d)(?:[.](\d+))?)?([-+]\d\d:\d\d|Z)$/`

> could be used to ensure that only valid `datetime` attribute values are

> matched.


Ok, this looks like it would match a valid date and time [1], but what
about a date without time or a time without date [2]? According to the
spec, all three should be allowed [3]. Have fun building that regex.

:-)



> This would avoid false positives and would keep `[foo]{bar}`

> available for other functions, potentially.


I understand what you're trying to do here, but I suspect this could
conflict with the attribute list syntax used by a few
implementations.[4] I realize they start with a colon `{: ...}`, but
the similarity should at least be considered.

Another concern it that `[foo]{bar}` looks an awful lot like
`[foo](bar)` or even `[foo][bar]`. I realize the later two look very
similar, but as both indicate links, there is less for the reader to
get confused about. You're introducing a non-link syntax, so it should
probably look less like a link IMO.

That said, I'm going to ignore the 'looks like a link' issue for a
moment and add that I think I would prefer something like a reference
syntax with a datetime label:

    Some text [30 May 2011] more text.

    [30 May 2011]: datetime: 2011-05-30T15:00-07:00

The text is easier to read here, which actually provides a benefit
over just entering the raw html. Of course `[30 May 2011][]` or `[30
May 2011][some label]` could also work, although I don't know why
you'd want to use them.

Now if you can come up with a clean way to make that look less like a
link, I might be interested in using it myself. Otherwise, I'll stick
to raw html here.

[1]: http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/common-microsyntaxes.html#global-dates-and-times
[2]: http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/common-microsyntaxes.html#valid-date-or-time-string
[3]: http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/text-level-semantics.html#the-time-element
[4]: http://maruku.rubyforge.org/proposal.html#attribute_lists

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Waylan Limberg