Re: [html] "title" text semantics, and "minor" element discussion

Christophe Strobbe wrote:

>> At 19:53 18/10/2005, Osmo Saarikumpu wrote:

>> I guess that I'd prefer every occurrence of an abbreviation expanded 
>> if the other alternative would be not knowing it's meaning.

> But that also applies to books, articles and other printed materials: 
> the author has no control over where the user starts reading, but 
> printed materials don't specify expansions of abbrevations at every 
> occurrence. Similarly, if a user chooses to start reading in the middle 
> of a document, it is his/her own responsibility if he/she skips 
> expansions of abbreviations that are provided before his entry point 
> into the document.

I see a difference betwixt books, articles, etc. and the Web, as usually 
printed materials are read in the order of appearance (and when not it's 
by choice), but in the Web we follow links that may refer to targets in 
the middle of documents or in sub pages of collections. If I follow a 
link that targets a specific section of a document I'm not (at least 
intentionally) skipping anything.

If you provide the expansion of an abbreviation only in it's first 
occurrence then you are employing a policy that does not (IMO) agree 
well with hypertext. Thus, the XHTML 2 view seems more suitable.[1]

Considerer also that WCAG 1.0 adds:

"Providing the expansion in the main body of the document also helps 
document usability."[2]

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-xhtml2-20050527/mod-text.html#sec_9.1.
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/#gl-abbreviated-and-foreign

Regards,
Osmo

Received on Tuesday, 18 October 2005 21:00:54 UTC