Re: W3C DOM Level 3 Events

On 30/12/2005 18:46, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

Michael Winter wrote: 

[snip]

The DOM Level 3 Events module has been a Working Group Note since November 2003. This probably marks the end of its development. 

I hope not, and I do not think so, taking both the provision

| This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or
| obsoleted by other documents at any time.

and the long development cycle [...] 

Yes, I realise this, but it's process status is significant:

  Working Group Note
    A Working Group Note is published by a chartered Working
    Group to indicate that work has ended on a particular topic.
    A Working Group MAY publish a Working Group Note with or
    without its prior publication as a Working Draft.

     -- 7.1.3 Maturity Levels When Ending Work on a Technical
              Report, W3C Technical Report Development Process[1]

Furthermore:

  Work on a technical report MAY cease at any time. When a
  Working Group completes its work on a technical report, it
  publishes it either as a Recommendation or a Working Group
  Note. For example, a Working Group might publish several
  Working Drafts of a requirements document, and then indicate
  that it no longer plans to work on the requirements document by
  publishing a Working Group Note.

  Work MAY also cease because W3C determines that it cannot
  productively carry the work any further. For instance, the
  Director might close a Working Group, the participants might
  lose interest in a technical report, or the ideas might be
  subsumed by another technical report. If W3C decides to
  discontinue work on a technical report before completion, the
  technical report SHOULD be published as a Working Group Note.

  Possible next steps:

    - End state: A technical report MAY remain a Working Group
      Note indefinitely
    - Otherwise: A Working Group MAY resume work on the technical
      report as a Working Draft

                   -- 7.5 Ending Work on a Technical Report, W3C
                          Technical Report Development Process[2]

The Working Draft Note status is an end to the development life-cycle. It's not necessarily permanent, but if they're having difficulty moving in the direction they'd like to go (virtual keys aren't backwards-compatible, after all), they might have decided to drop it and work on other modules that will have more chance of immediate success.

I searched the mailing list archives a while ago to see if the reasons behind the decision were made public, but I didn't find anything and I'm not so concerned so that I'm moved to inquire.

Mike


[1] <http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/tr.html#q75>
[2] <http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/tr.html#tr-end>

--
Michael Winter
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