Re: [XHTML 2] removal of navigation list element

Laurens Holst wrote:
> As discussed and agreed with by many on www-html, I request the removal 
> of the navigation list (<nl>) element, as defined in section 11.2 of the 
> XHTML 2.0 working draft dated May 27th, 2005.
> 
> Rationale can be found in the discussion on www-html, e.g.:
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/2005May/0137
> 
> Basically, I think that the <nl> element could be better expressed as 
> <ul role="navigation">. The case the specification makes about removing 
> the need for scripting is hardly a good one, as web site authors will 
> usually desire much more control (style, behavior) than the <nl> element 
> offers.

Why just this element? A lot of elements can be removed now there is a 
way to use RDF features to describe them. XHTML 2.0 could probably be 
reduced to the xhtml2:html, xhtml2:div and xhtml2:span elements and 
various attribute modules.

However, I'm not sure if such abstraction is a good idea.

I believe there is also a subtle difference between |role="navigation"| 
and the NL element. Where |role="navigation"| defines its relation to 
other elements within the document the NL element denotes that its 
content are to be used for navigation.

A simple example:

  <section role="navigation">
   <h>Browse around, freely</h>
   <p>Various sections of this site include:</p>
   <nl>
    ...

The ROLE attribute on the SECTION element indicates its relation to 
other sections within the document where the NL element describes the 
function.

Also, how do you qualify 'many'?


-- 
  Anne van Kesteren
  <http://annevankesteren.nl/>