(bold, italics <b> <i>) part of my review of 3.12 Phrase elements

Italics (<i>):

Consider leaving the meaning of <i> as is: "Renders the elements  
contents in an italics style" Perhaps explicitly add: "The <i>  
element continues to hare the same meaning as it did in XHTML1 and  
HTML4.01"


Consider instead adding new elements fro "alternate voice",  
"alternate mood", "taxonomic designation", "technical term",  
"idiomatic foreign phrase", "a thought", "proper names". for example  
<voice>, <mood>, <taxonomy>, <term>, <idiom>, <thought>, or <pname>.  
Particularly for "proper names", I've often thought that was a  
glaring semantic omission from HTML. It is OK to leave <i> here to be  
a catch-all for these semantics :perhaps even adding a class name to  
clarify meaning). However, the draft should make it clear that <i>  
means nothing more than this text is italics. Why it's italics is  
only known to the author and may be capable of heuristic  
determination by the user.

The note about stylesheets should be changed to "Authors should not  
change the style of this element to something other than italics."  
for visual media."

Bold (<b>):

Consider leaving the meaning of <b> as is: "Renders the elements  
contents in a bold style" Perhaps explicitly add: "The <b> element  
continues to hare the same meaning as it did in XHTML1 and HTML4.01"

Consider adding new elements for "key words" (i.e., terms), or  
"product names" (i.e., "proper names'). These examples arose for the  
italics element too.I earlier in a previous review raised the  
possibility of adding a "terms" element for conveying the semantics  
off an important specialized term[1]. Proper names might also be a  
common enough  semantic (coupled with a @type attribute) to justify  
inclusion in the semantic repertoire. Idiom might even be useful  
instead of just <span lang='zz'>a phase</span>. Bold and italics  
would remain for any other usage.

The note about stylesheets should be changed to "Authors should not  
change the style of this element to something other than bold." for  
visual media."

[1]: Proposal of a <term> element:
  <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Jul/0936.html>

Received on Friday, 20 July 2007 09:58:13 UTC