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w3c / wpub-ann

Web Annotation Extensions for Web Publications
https://w3c.github.io/wpub-ann/
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"Selectors" is already normatively defined #40

Open therealglazou opened 6 years ago

therealglazou commented 6 years ago

"Selectors" is normatively defined in W3C space by https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/ and the Locators spec should probably use another vocabulary. Locations, matchers, Pointer, etc.

BigBlueHat commented 6 years ago

Also https://www.w3.org/TR/selectors/ and https://www.w3.org/TR/selectors-api/ (among others).

In search results on the W3C site, the Selectors and States NOTE is the only other reference to "selectors" that is not (entirely) CSS related.

Given that we'd not gotten that feedback during development of the Web Annotation specifications, perhaps now is the time to address them.

tcole3 commented 6 years ago

My proposal to resolve this, as mentioned in my comment on #41, is to ask the OA CG to publish an errata entry. Then our extensions of the Web Annotation Data Model and Vocabulary could use the replacement term posited in the errata. This will not stop implementations already in place from using Selector, but it will keep us from propagating the error further.

BigBlueHat commented 6 years ago

@tcole3 you mention possibly renaming "Selectors" to "Locators" once it was removed from the document title (#38): https://github.com/w3c/publ-loc/issues/41#issuecomment-351516450

...change Selector to (for example) Locator, which would be facilitated if we retitled our document so as to stop overloading the term 'Locator' as we have...

Consequently there's some support for that naming in the Web Driver spec. They refer to all their "selectors" under the heading "Locator Strategies"--however, they also reuse the word "selectors" but always in combination with something else: "CSS selector", "XPath selector", "link text selector", etc.

Locator, then, seems like a good for a possible replacement word for "selectors"--but maybe we should discuss this in the OA CG more first?

tcole3 commented 6 years ago

Definitely discuss with the OA CG first. There are other options and other terms they might favor. They could decide not to issue an errata at this time. Given the use of selector with modifier in other documents they could want to say that every reference in the Web Anno specs to "Selector" should be "Annotation Selector". From the perspective of the Publishing Working Group it would be good if we could avoid misappropriating the term Selector in our specs, and that would be easier if there was at least an errata regarding this pertaining to the Web Anno documents. But take it to the OA CG and we can give them a chance to weigh in before we resolve in our documents that reference the Web Anno specs.

azaroth42 commented 6 years ago

I consider this a non-issue. That there is a use of the English word "Selector" in a different context is totally fine. I don't see anywhere in the CSS Selectors spec, please do point me in the right direction if I'm wrong, that requires no other future (now existing) specification to use the term "selector".

The Annotation work also uses the term "body" which is the name of an element in HTML, one of the W3C's oldest and best known specifications, and has been there since the beginning. Also "target", an attribute in HTML, also since very early if not the beginning.