Re: proposal to explicitly forbid <small> use as subheadings

Lets not forget that a lot of sites already use <small> for sub-headings.
Frameworks like Bootstrap suggest exactly
that<http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/components.html#typography>
:

<h1>Example page header <small>Subtext for header</small></h1>



--
Samuel Santos
http://www.samaxes.com/


On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 3:19 PM, Adrian Roselli <Roselli@algonquinstudios.com
> wrote:

> > From: Steve Faulkner [mailto:faulkner.steve@gmail.com]
> > Sent: Friday, June 07, 2013 5:06 AM
> >
> > Hi all,
> > hixie made a change to the whatwg spec in regards to <small>[1]
> >
> > <p>The <code>small</code> element must not be used for subheadings; for
> that purpose, use the
> > <code>hgroup</code> element.</p>
> >
> > As you may know changes to the whatwg spec are treated as proposals for
> inclusion in the HTML spec,
> > many are included as they are uncontroversial.
> >
> > Some like the above are not, as the WG needs to be made aware and
> discussion needs to take place
> > on the change.
> >
> > The second part of the sentence can be replaced with "follow the advice
> on marking up Subheadings,
> > subtitles, alternative titles and taglines [2]"
> >
> > but we need to decide if the "must not" requirement on use of <small> is
> an appropriate conformance
> > requirement for HTML?
>
> I don't think it should be "must not." There is no element for
> subheadings, so excluding one over others seems capricious.
>
> We (or maybe just me) can make the same argument that an <em> is not a
> subheading. Nor is an <i>. In each case, since there is no
> semantic/structural element to indicate a sub-head, a developer is going to
> choose an element that approximates a desired visual style. Sometimes the
> developer might want to make it smaller (<small>), sometimes italic (<i>),
> sometimes both (maybe both elements, maybe just one with more styles).
>
> If a sub-heading element is created, then this language should change to
> reflect that.
>
> FWIW, I don't think any of those elements makes a good sub-head.
>
>
> > [1] http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=7869&to=7870
> > [2]
> http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/common-idioms.html#sub-head
>
>