[hypermail] WAI/HTML/CSS improvements to the mailing list archives

From: Jose Kahan <jose.kahan_at_w3.org_at_hypermail-project.org>
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 11:17:36 +0200
Message-ID: <20020923091736.GB3928_at_inrialpes.fr>

Hello Peter et al,

As you may know, we use hypermail for the W3C mailing list mailing archives.

Some months ago, a workgroup proposed new improvements to the archives for enhancing the WAI (accessibility), HTML structure, and CSS of the archives. Some of these features are for converting the archives to full XHTML and let people use XSLT scripts on the HTMLized messages.

I've been working on this, but unfortunately, I never find enough time for finishing it. I was wondering if someone else would like to carry on this work?

What I can contribute so far is the full convertion to XHTML. I could also contribute my WAI port so far, but as it's not complete, I think it's better to start it from scratch.

The proposed improvements are available at:

        http://w3.org/2002/03/archives-improvements/

The other thing I've been working on is changing the sequential numbering of the archives to a hash string based on the msigd and reception date of messages. This is to make it easier to remove/insert messages without breaking existing links. Ultimately, this change could be used to put all the messages metadata in a single file (either text or GDBM) and this could greatly improve the updating of archives. Currenly this metadata is stored in each file in the archive and all of them have to be opened when adding a new archive.

I've been succesful in changing the message sequencing. I am just missing choosing the correct hash function. For the moment, I'm just putting the msgid+date, but this makes the URL too big.

I'd like to know is if people are interested in my commiting the XHTML changes + the non-sequential message feature (activated thru an option).

I'd also like to know if someone is interested in carrying forward the archives WAI/HTML/CSS improvement. You have been recently working on this, so maybe it could interest you?

Thanks!

-jose Received on Tue 24 Sep 2002 01:11:07 AM GMT