proposal: modify the figure element

Hi All,

hixie has changed the descriptive text [1] for the figure element in the
whatwg spec, to clarify its usage: Changes to the W3C HTML spec to clarify
usage were made a few months ago[2]

hixies proposed text:

> The figure element represents some flow content, optionally with a
> caption, that is self-contained (like a complete sentence) and is typically
> referenced as a single unit from the main flow of the document.
>
Self-contained in this context does not necessarily mean independent. For
> example, each sentence in a paragraph is self-contained; an image that is
> part of a sentence would be inappropriate for figure, but an entire
> sentence made of images would be fitting.
>
> The element can thus be used to annotate illustrations, diagrams, photos,
> code listings, etc.
>
When a figure is referred to from the main content of the document by
identifying it by its caption (e.g. by figure number), it enables such
content to be easily moved away from that primary content, e.g. to the side
of the page, to dedicated pages, or to an appendix, without affecting the
flow of the document.

If a figure element is referenced by its relative position, e.g. "in the
photograph above" or "as the next figure shows", then moving the figure
would disrupt the page's meaning. Authors are encouraged to consider using
labels to refer to figures, rather than using such relative references, so
that the page can easily be restyled without affecting the page's meaning.


HTML5 /5.1 current text:

The figure element represents some flow content, optionally with a caption,
> that is self-contained and may be referenced as a single unit from the main
> flow of the document.
>
> The element can be used to annotate illustrations, diagrams, photos, code
> listings, etc. This includes, but is not restricted to, content referred to
> from the main part of the document that could, without affecting the flow
> of the document, be moved away from that primary content, e.g. to the side
> of the page, to dedicated pages, or to an appendix.
>
> The figure element can be used to caption an image, for example, when the
> image is a main part of the content. This could be the case, for instance,
> on a page that is part of a photo gallery where the image is the whole
> point of the page containing it.
>

Does hixie's proposed text improve the understanding of how to use figure
for authors over what is currently in the HTML spec? if so how?

[1] http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-figure-element
[2]
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/grouping-content.html#the-figure-element
--

Regards

SteveF
HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>