Using <p> elements purely as containers of phrasing elements? Semantic or not?

In the HTML spec there are currently two questionable (imho) examples
which use <p> element purely for containing purpose. As shown at
below:

1. To contain form controls, like <label> and <input> pairs:
source: http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/forms.html#the-fieldset-element

2. To contain a set of legal-related hyperlinks in footer:
source: http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/sections.html#the-nav-element

Of course, according to spec, it is valid that phrasing elements like
<label>, <input>, and <a> elements appear in a <p> element. But when
you use <p> element purely as container, is that really a semantic
approach?

iiuc, only when there are other sentences inside the <p> element can
the <p> element be reasonably used to contain <label>, <input>, and
<a> elements. Like our common use cases in which <a> elements are
amongst a paragraph of text.

So what was the reason which resulted in the two potentially
problematic examples mentioned above? Especially the first one about
form controls. Form controls are not sentences or paragraphs at all.


Sincerely,
Ian Yang

Received on Monday, 6 May 2013 13:34:23 UTC