Confusing old TR url "aria-in-html"

[patrickhlauke]

Currently, "Using ARIA" is published on W3C under https://www.w3.org/TR/using-aria/ but previous versions also appear under https://www.w3.org/TR/aria-in-html/

Then, there's a completely separate draft actually called "ARIA in HTML" under https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aria/

This is highly confusing...althought going to https://www.w3.org/TR/aria-in-html/ and following the "latest published version" link you do end up on the new https://www.w3.org/TR/using-aria/ endpoint, it may be worth having some sort of visible note at the top of these older versions to denote the name change? or even some form of redirect?

[chaals]

Having a redirect causes a problem for people who are actually looking for some old version for some reason (which happens more commonly in the future than the present). But I think we could republish with helpful information in the top of the document.

@ylafon ?

[patrickhlauke]

i think people who land on the old aria-in-html URL can likely be split in two rough camps:

• people who were looking for what is now the "Using ARIA" document at the new url
• people who were actually looking for the completely distinct "ARIA in HTML" spec

maybe adding an overlay/box/alert type thing (like the ones that pop up on, say, https://www.w3.org/TR/2017/WD-using-aria-20171123/ to warn that you're looking at an old version) may be an option? mentioning "this spec now lives under https://www.w3.org/TR/using-aria/. if you were looking for "ARIA in HTML", it's actually here https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aria/"

[chaals]

There is another camp: people who are trying to track the development history. Eventually I think that becomes the majority usage, since neither of the groups you mention should be growing at any appreciable rate...

But yes, your proposed solution is basically what I imagined, and I think it deals with the issues.

[DavidMacDonald]

I agree... anyone know on next steps to get the splash outdated message on the old document with the forward. @chaals @patrickhlauke