RE: HTML Action Item 54 - ...draft text for HTML 5 spec to require producers/authors to include @alt on img elements.

Lachlan -

I think we would have more than <div> and <span>, particularly for meta-data. In a nutshell, any tag which currently has at least one mandatory attribute of its own already should probably remain a separate tag, as a good, "off the top of my head" guideline. <img> for example, and <form>, just to name two immediately. But <p>, <strong>, <em>, etc. would all be gone. The only way I would support keeping them under this plan would be to have them mapped to the appropriate div/span + role combination with no default styling outside of what a div or span gets. If you make role mandatory, then the concern of everyone just using styling for everything is gone, especially since you are now making it a lot easier for people to things RIGHT than wrong.

J.Ja

-----Original Message-----
From: Lachlan Hunt [mailto:lachlan.hunt@lachy.id.au] 
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 4:55 AM
To: Justin James
Cc: public-html@w3.org
Subject: Re: HTML Action Item 54 - ...draft text for HTML 5 spec to require producers/authors to include @alt on img elements.

Justin James wrote:
> The difference is, my proposal takes away the styling advantages of using
> the wrong tag. It is quite common to see <h1> where the goal was really
> <span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">. Or <em>USS
> Constitution</em> when semantically that is wholly incorrect. By taking away
> the default stylings, and separating the role from the styling, you stop
> seeing this.

Since all we'd be left with is div and span, your proposal also takes 
away any incentive for authors to bother using the correct markup.  All 
we would get is people using <div style="..."> for everything, and you 
instantly lose all semantics and accessibility.  You're proposal is 
basically suffering from an extreme case of div-itis.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software
http://lachy.id.au/
http://www.opera.com/

Received on Monday, 12 May 2008 14:53:54 UTC