Re: what is dt?

Shelley Powers writes:

> Shelley Powers wrote:
> 
> > Smylers wrote this in another email:
> >
> > "As defined by HTML5, a user agent can treat the contents of a <cite> 
> > element as being the title of a work; if <cite> is expanded to do two
> > distinct things (both titles of works and conversation speakers) then
> > <cite> effectively becomes a semantically empty element two: a user
> > agent can't know which of the two meanings is intended, so can't presume
> > either of them."
> >
> > Then where does this leave dt and dd?
> 
> Of course, I answer my own question: the container determines the use.

Quite.

> As for cite, and differentiating between title and author, we don't
> have to differentiate between an author and a title, as a citation is
> just that -- a reference to where the material arose.

Indeed a citation is just that.  But arguably not all titles of works
are citations, so there's still two definitions smooshed together in
there.

More to the point, such things are not typically communicated to users
in the same way.  Users are typically told which words in text are
titles of works, but not about the others:

> It can a person, a page, a book, an article, or even a combination of
> all these items, given as separate citations in separate cite
> elements.  It is semantically the same, though the value may change.
> It's still just a citation, though.

Smylers

Received on Thursday, 17 September 2009 15:47:23 UTC