[whatwg] [web-apps] 2.7.8 The i element

Anne van Kesteren wrote:
> Ian Hickson wrote:
> 
>>> Then would you want different markup for book titles, movie titles,
>>> play titles, song titles, etc?  Or would you just expect the script
>>> to search IMDB for anything marked up with <cite>?
>>
>> Again, I don't really know. I could see a use case for a "type"
>> attribute (as was suggested earlier in this thread), but that seems
>> like a slippery slope. Suggestions?
> 
> If we go with something like a TYPE attribute, I hope we can give it a
> better name. However, hiding semantics inside the value of an attribute 
> is a poor markup design in humble opinion. (Although it also has some 
> advantages.)

It's subclassing: the general is sufficient, the specific better. Many
markup languages use the design, and in this case, I think it's necessary.

~fantasai