- From: Mjumbe Ukweli <mpoe@cs.hmc.edu>
- Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 12:36:49 -0800 (PST)
- Cc: www-html@w3.org
On Tue, 21 Jan 2003, fantasai wrote: > Kelvin Chung wrote: > > 1. Is there any point to having <sub> or <sup>? I cannot find any real > > semantic value in these two elements. > > "The mass of the large block is <var>m<sub>1</sub></var>..." > > 9ft<sup>2</sup> > > C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>12</sub>O<sub>6</sub> > None of the above examples really answers Kelvin's question (with the exception perhaps of the first one). If an engine were given the task of finding the units on the 9 above, how would it make heads or tails of: ft<sup>2</sup>? This is just feet with a superscripted 2 at the end. It might do better for there to be entities like &squared; and &cubed; that really mean something. In the same vein, how would an engine know how many Hydrogens are in the above equation for glucose? Nothing about "<sub>" makes this clear. In these two cases <sub> and <sup> are used presentationally where something more semantic may be in order. - Mjumbe[wu]
Received on Wednesday, 22 January 2003 15:41:19 UTC