Re: CSS Generated content selection

"Patrick H. Lauke" <redux@splintered.co.uk> wrote:

>> FWIW I consider the HTML spec requirement that a browser should generate
>> quotation marks around content marked up with the <q> element as a
>> flawed concept. Quotation marks for inline quotes are punctuation marks
>> like commas, full stops etc. and should be part of the content proper,
>> not generated by the browser.
>
>I'd see quotation marks as the way in traditional (non-machine-readable) 
>writing to define (or mark up) where a quote starts and ends. This 
>function is fulfilled far more unambiguously by the actual markup of the 
><q> element.

IMO markup should make plain text content machine readable, it should
not replace parts of it. Following your reasoning it would be ok to omit
a full stop after the last sentence in the paragraph preceding another
since the latter paragraph makes it clear that the last sentence in the
preceding paragraph has ended.

>> IMO if for example the numbering of items in a list is more than mere
>> presentation they should /also/ be made part of the content proper. IMO
>> the generated prefix to list items is mere presentation on par with a
>> border specified on a paragraph.
>
>For standard numbering (1,2,3,...), I'd disagree on this. It's not mere 
>presentation, but the visual manifestation of the markup.

In support of the notion that the standard numbering on an ordered list
is mere presentation is if you specify "ol li{display:inline}" then the
numbering disappears and there's no way to bring the standard numbering
back.

The HTML 4 spec defines lists as follows:

"Ordered and unordered lists are rendered in an identical manner except
that visual user agents number ordered list items. User agents may
present those numbers in a variety of ways."

There is no requirement on non visual UAs to number ordered list items,
there is no requirement on any UA as to the order and sequencing of the
numbering, CSS can be used to display letters instead of numbers, and as
previously noted the list items can be displayed inline resulting in no
prefix to be displayed at all.

If numbered footnotes are in a list with references to them from the
article content then there is only one way to assure that the correct
footnote can be found and that is by including the numbering in the
content proper.

-- 
Spartanicus

Received on Monday, 23 April 2007 11:01:34 UTC