Re: p in address tag?

On 11/9/05, Karl Dubost <karl@w3.org> wrote:
> Hmmm… it doesnt seem that what you are saying here is completely
> clear to me
>
> Le 05-11-09 à 13:02, Orion Adrian a écrit :
> > My point is that ADDRESS is used for this kind of address:
> >
> > Orion Adrian
> > 123 Barrier St.
> > Lizardlick, NC 21001
> > United States
> >
> > That's the use that the element was designed for which can also be
> > written:
>
> The HTML 4.01 Specification doesn't say that (though it's not very
> explicit either)
>
> [[[
> The ADDRESS element may be used by authors to supply contact
> information for a document or a major part of a document such as a
> form. This element often appears at the beginning or end of a document.
>
> For example, a page at the W3C Web site related to HTML might include
> the following contact information:
>
> <ADDRESS>
> <A href="../People/Raggett/">Dave Raggett</A>,
> <A href="../People/Arnaud/">Arnaud Le Hors</A>,
> contact persons for the <A href="Activity">W3C HTML Activity</A><BR>
> $Date: 1999/12/24 23:37:50 $
> </ADDRESS>
> ]]]
>
> -- The global structure of an HTML document
> http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/global.html#edef-ADDRESS
> Fri, 24 Dec 1999 23:37:50 GMT

While the spec doesn't say so, the origin of the address element seems
to be based on the structure I described. In fact early HTML seems to
coincide very closely  to the elements of a form letter and a
sectioned document. It seems the spec, however, doesn't really
represent this in each element's description.

One issue I see is that while we are moving away from certain elements
in this classic sense (as I've described them above), but it's not
really a complete move. One mentioned that address (document-specific)
should be replaced with author (content-specific). However, what is
the replacement for hn? title? What is the replacement for p? idea?

It isn't that this transition is happening, but that it seems very
inconsistent. Proper markup requires two different styles of thinking
which don't often work well together internally, though that's based
on limited personal studies. I will continue to work on it, but this
is something I feel has not been addressed, though I understand my
position is in the extreme minority.

--

Orion Adrian

Received on Thursday, 10 November 2005 04:52:09 UTC