Re: <q>

2008/10/28 Justin James <j_james@mindspring.com>

> I like <q> as a tag to indicate that something is a
> quote, kind of like "blockquote is to div as q is to span". I don't like it
> as trying to plaster on automagical punctuation marks.


Then either don't use <q> in your own markup, or else specify a style rule
to prevent <q> from making presentational changes that include the insertion
of punctuation.

Essentially, the proposals I've made are like "blockquote is to div as q is
to span". It is only because standard typographical style in English and
many other widely used languages is not to append/prepend punctuation to
block quotes that I (and presumably others) have not suggested that
<blockquote> should do so by default. However, because standard
typographical style in many languages is to append/prepend quotation marks
to inline quotations, I think the <quotation> element should do so.

Similarly, I do not propose that line break-like whitespace should appear at
the beginning and end of <span> elements, though I am happy for it to appear
at the beginning and end of <div> elements.



> In addition, what about UAs that
> use a default stylesheet different from what the author expects?


If the default styling for <q> elements is given in the spec in the manner I
previously proposed, then this will not occur. That is, assuming the author
is familiar with the spec, and the UA follows spec, the UA will not use a
default stylesheet that differs from what the author expects.


> Or do not
> use CSS at all?


Well, since such UAs will inevitably impose their own styling upon content,
it will be up to their maintainers to handle <q> in a way they feel is
appropriate. For instance, just as such UAs may *always* use a set default
paragraph spacing, they may choose to *always* enclose <q> elements with a
pair of double quote marks.


> What if the quote contains a quote? Should the inside quote
> also use <q>?


Yes.


> What if the inner contents come from elsewhere, like an
> authoring tool or are pulled from XML and inserted via JavaScript?


I can't see how this is a problem, as long as the inner contents are
decently marked up (which they should be anyway).


> No, I
> think that the idea of <q> rendering quotes, regardless of the rules it
> uses, is a very bad idea.


I think I've addressed all of your stated objections to <q>. Please
reconsider whether <q> is really such a bad idea after all.

Regards,

Sam