Re: proposal to allow div, h1 .. h6 and section as children of list elements

Bruce Lawson wrote:

> <ol>…
> <h2>Commencement</h2>
> <li> These regulations replace the Practising Certificate  
> Regulations 1976
> in relation to all practising certificates, and applications for
> practising certificates, for any period commencing on or after 1st
> November 1995.</li>
> <h2>Requests for information</h2>
> <li>In addition to information supplied on any prescribed form  
> under these
> regulations, solicitors must supply to the Law Society such  
> information as
> to their practice as solicitors as the Society shall from time to time
> reasonably require for the purpose of processing applications.</li>
> <h2>Replacement date and conditions</h2>
> <li>The replacement date for every practising certificate shall be the
> 31st October following the issue of the applicant’s current practising
> certificate.</li>
> <li>Every practising certificate shall specify its commencement  
> date, its
> replacement date, and any conditions imposed by the Law Society</li>
> …</ol>

As you noted, this could alternatively be marked up as:

<div class="regulations">
<h2>Commencement</h2>
<p>These regulations replace the Practising Certificate Regulations 1976
in relation to all practising certificates, and applications for
practising certificates, for any period commencing on or after 1st
November 1995.</p>
<h2>Requests for information</h2>
<p>In addition to information supplied on any prescribed form under  
these
regulations, solicitors must supply to the Law Society such  
information as
to their practice as solicitors as the Society shall from time to time
reasonably require for the purpose of processing applications.</p>
<h2>Replacement date and conditions</h2>
<p>The replacement date for every practising certificate shall be the
31st October following the issue of the applicant’s current practising
certificate.</p>
<p>Every practising certificate shall specify its commencement date, its
replacement date, and any conditions imposed by the Law Society</p>
</div>

div.regulations
{
   counter-reset: regulation-paragraph;
}
div.regulations p:before
{
   content: "\B6" counter(regulation-paragraph) ": ";
   counter-increment: regulation-paragraph;
}

But your objection was:

> This spectacularly fails the  Markup Duck Test which states that if it
> looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it  
> is a
> duck: a list of paragraphs, each beginning with a number indicating  
> the
> order of the paragraphs is an ordered list, and needs to be marked  
> up as
> one.


As I understand it, these are referred to as "paragraphs" by those in  
the legal profession, so surely <p> is a better element for the job  
than <li>?

I think most of the cases your proposal covers can be solved by  
adjusting the markup, especially with the <ol start> and <li value>  
attribute.

That having been said, I do see the merit in a grouping element  
within lists, but not one which allows arbitrary content. Something  
equivalent to <tbody> within tables: the content model within the  
<tbody> is as if the <tbody> wasn't there.

-- 
Toby A Inkster
<mailto:mail@tobyinkster.co.uk>
<http://tobyinkster.co.uk>

Received on Wednesday, 22 October 2008 22:33:22 UTC