When I saw main proposed as an element a few months ago (or content or maincontent as alternate names), I didn't think the process to fold it into the HTML specification would move very quickly.
Much to my surprise on the W3C HTML Working Group mailing list the main element not only got a draft HTML5 extension specification quickly, it also worked its way through the process to become approved as a First Public Working Draft on Tuesday (yesterday) the 27th of November.
And so the process appears to be working.
Except the W3C is just one of the standards bodies working on HTML5. There is also WHATWG, the body that years ago picked up the then-discarded HTML specification from W3C and started to carry it forward to HTML5. Now the two groups work together, with the W3C working on versioned specifications with WHATWG working on the ever-evolving standard.
Over on the WHATWG mailing list, main doesn't seem to be getting much traction from the editor, which leaves it in a bit of limbo. WHATWG does, however, try to reflect in its specification approach that which is already in place in the browsers. For example, if the browser makers suddenly supported main, then WHATWG would consider it viable.
Except WHATWG was started by, and is still made up of, people from the browser makers Apple, Mozilla and Opera. Others contribute, but its membership can heavily influence the direction browsers take.
When the author of the main extension specification started to add support for main to WebKit (the core of Apple Safari and Google Chrome), the WebKit bug report quickly turned into a fresh debate over the merit of the main element — by none other than the WHATWG editor.
Mozilla team members have pre-emptively stated that they do not support main being added to HTML5, but they did so on the WebKit mailing list. The argument against main being added as a patch to the browsers is this:
Shopping a patch to implementors, to get something into a standard spec
by asserting de-facto status based on the patch(es) landing, is bad form.
Sadly, it seems the same circular argument is being used to block main in the WHATWG HTML specification. By blocking its implementation in browsers, WHATWG members can claim there is no real-world support and so no need to add it to the specification (this is assuming the arguments against the use cases still stand). Then it's a matter of pushing back at the W3C HTML Working Group to let it wither over there.
Even the author of the use cases for the main element appears to have thrown in the towel at WHATWG.
There is still some hope, however. Both Opera and Internet Explorer representatives have not argued against it and have even offered some support:
@aardrian nothing definitive from opera but @zcorpan appered to support it and helped. got a non objection from IE at TPAC
— Steve Faulkner (@stevefaulkner) November 28, 2012
Bear in mind, all this has happened in roughly a 48 hour window. Much more will happen, but the start of this process is certainly not as positive as I had hoped (disclosure, I voted for it on the W3C list). Even if you aren't in favor of the main element, this is still a telling view into the standards-making process.
Update, January 31, 2013
And there it is, main has appeared in the WHATWG version of the HTML specification.
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