Re: Cleaning House

On Sun, May 06, 2007 at 03:27:21AM -0700, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:

> >>elements. But consider <i class="ship">.
> >
> >  Meaning nothing. Do you mean a ship name? Or is it an abbreviate
> >  name for a shipping label? Or perhaps even a status saying whether
> >  something is about to ship?
> 
> What is the correct way, according to you, to mark up a ship name?  

  That wasn't the topic. Ideally we would use the <shipname> element,
  of course, but that doesn't exist in HTML - and no-one has ever
  said that HTML ought contain elements for all conceivable
  semantic constructs.

  With that firmly out of the way, it depends on the style of
  publication - as others point out: it's by no means a certainty
  that a ship's name should be set in italics.

  I would suggest the following if using HTML:

     <span class="shipName">
      <abbr title="Her Majesty's Ship">HMS</abbr> Gannet</span>

  Yes, the SPAN-element is semantically null. But no precise 
  element exist. The 'house style' can now be attached to the
  class "shipName", but there is, in the above, /no semantic
  value communicated/.

  Which is a shame, of course, but again: we can't make a
  markup language that fit all, and we most certainly cannot
  start guessing at what the content of an I-element might
  or might not be!

  The original point, however, remain unchanged even if we
  move from the poorly chosen class name "ship" to the more
  precise "shipName". The I-ement convey no more semantics
  than does SPAN.

  PS: Yes, the ABBR element is needed in this context,
  and I did enjoy using it there.

-- 
 - Tina Holmboe

Received on Sunday, 6 May 2007 10:53:55 UTC