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

suggest filing a bug:

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/enter_bug.cgi?product=HTML%20WG&component=HTML5%20spec&priority=P3

note: you need to sign up for a bugzilla account.

--

Regards

SteveF
HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>


On 8 May 2013 18:41, Xaxio Brandish <xaxiobrandish@gmail.com> wrote:

> Ian,
>
> Just to clarify -- the *p* element is separating the phrasing content in
> the *specific* example you pointed out, rather than grouping it.  After
> all, the radio buttons in the example are related.  Most of the time, the
> *p* element should be used for grouping, not separation.
>
> I do believe that the example would make more sense without the paragraph
> elements.  Hopefully, the example will get modified in the next versions of
> the latest draft.
>
> --Xaxio
>
>
> On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 4:20 AM, Ian Yang <ian@invigoreight.com> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 6:41 PM, Xaxio Brandish <xaxiobrandish@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Ian,
>> >
>> > In your example, the text after the input element could simply exist
>> without
>> > the surrounding paragraph tags.  However, I agree that using paragraph
>> > elements to thematically group form controls and sections is an odd
>> > decision.  Let's try to trace it back.
>> >
>> > HTML 5.1 [1] states that:
>> >
>> >> Each part of a form is considered a paragraph, and is typically
>> separated
>> >> from other parts using p elements.
>> >
>> >
>> > Note that "part" in the above statement is not well-defined.  The
>> section is
>> > non-normative, but it is the only guide we have for why <p> would be
>> used to
>> > separate "parts" of a form.  Fieldsets are often part of a form, but
>> since
>> > fieldsets are not considered "phrasing content", they cannot be
>> paragraphs
>> > -- they can only contain paragraphs.  A paragraph is defined as a "run"
>> of
>> > phrasing content, but at no point is there a clear definition of what
>> "run"
>> > means in this case.  If a run is a continuous section of phrasing
>> content,
>> > meaning content that is not broken up by content other than phrasing
>> > content, then "each part" in the above statement could *only* refer to
>> the
>> > entire form if it does not contain one of the following elements (the
>> list
>> > of flow content minus the list of phrasing content):
>> >
>> > address
>> > article
>> > aside
>> > blockquote
>> > details
>> > dialog
>> > div
>> > dl
>> > fieldset
>> > figure
>> > footer
>> > form
>> > h1
>> > h2
>> > h3
>> > h4
>> > h5
>> > h6
>> > header
>> > hr
>> > main
>> > menu
>> > nav
>> > ol
>> > p
>> > pre
>> > section
>> > style (if the scoped attribute is present)
>> > table
>> > ul
>> >
>> > In HTML 4.01 [2], the examples given have the entire form content
>> wrapped in
>> > a paragraph element, which would seem to jive with the above
>> postulation.
>> > Note that the p element is NOT allowed to contain flow content in HTML
>> 5.1,
>> > so it cannot contain a fieldset as some examples in HTML 4.01 do.
>> >
>> > HTML 3.0 [3] states that:
>> >
>> >> Forms are created by placing input fields within paragraphs,
>> preformatted
>> >> text, lists and tables. This gives considerable flexibility in
>> designing the
>> >> layout of forms.
>> >
>> >
>> > Ah ha! We can infer from this that the original purpose of using the
>> > paragraph element in a form is for layout purposes, which is now in the
>> > domain of CSS.
>> >
>> > HTML 2.0 [4] states that:
>> >
>> >> ...a FORM element may contain lists which contain INPUT elements. This
>> >> gives considerable flexibility in designing the layout of forms.
>> >
>> >
>> > Verified.  An example given in HTML 2.0 [5] uses both paragraph
>> elements and
>> > list elements to help with form design.
>> >
>> > So there you have it.  The reason paragraph elements are used in forms
>> goes
>> > back to being a design element.  However, we now have CSS that clearly
>> > specifies how design applies to content, so it is no longer necessary
>> to use
>> > explicit p elements around related parts of a form when a label element
>> will
>> > suffice.  Over time, the paragraph element has taken on a different
>> meaning.
>> > This means that the p elements in the examples located at the link you
>> gave
>> > [6] serve no purpose as they are used in those examples.  The label
>> element
>> > alone would suffice.  The p tags do not serve to group thematically
>> related
>> > content in the examples -- in fact, they actually separate it.
>> >
>> > Knowing what we do, using the p tag for a paragraph element will only
>> break
>> > up runs of phrasing content into separate paragraphs.  It *may* not be
>> the
>> > best element to use for styling when it is necessary to contain certain
>> > other elements, as is often the case with forms.  There is no way to
>> know
>> > what a form "part" is; the author must decide what a form "part" is for
>> his
>> > or herself.  To solve the dilemma of wanting to use a paragraph tag as a
>> > textual semantic instead of a structural element, you can use one of the
>> > tags in the list above that accept flow content as a grouping mechanism
>> for
>> > related fields and form data instead, such as fieldset, div, or section;
>> > each of these can contain p elements.
>> >
>> > References:
>> > [1]
>> >
>> http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/forms.html#writing-a-form%27s-user-interface
>> > [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/interact/forms.html#idx-label
>> > [3] http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/forms.html
>> > [4] http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_8.html#SEC8
>> > [5] http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_8.html#SEC8.2.3
>> > [6] http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/forms.html#the-fieldset-element
>> >
>> > --Xaxio
>> >
>>
>> Hi Xaxio,
>>
>> I appreciate your deep research!
>>
>> It looks like using <p> to group form controls really is odd. And I
>> agree with you that what it does is actually separating runs of
>> phrasing content instead of grouping them. I guess I will just use
>> <div>.
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Ian Yang
>>
>
>