Re: Bug 8404 -- taking it to the lists

May I suggest to use the dfn element to mark the figure number? It
seems to be perfect for the job:

<figure id="firstemo">
<dd><pre>:)</pre></dd>
<dt><dfn>Figure 3.</dfn> The first emoticon.</dt>
</figure>
<p>A colon and a closing parenthesis formed the first smiley,
as shown in <a href="#firstemo">Figure 3</a>.</p>

Note that I don't think this dfn should be required; in informal
contexts the figure element should also be usable.

I don't think the semantic that figures are movable is a problem.
Because we agreed that all figures should have a caption, the caption
forms the bridge between the figure content
(table/image/equation/etc.) and the text. Defining figures to be
movable enhances the accessibility of the document (e.g. screen
readers could skip them until they are referenced and the user wants
to follow that reference (moving unreferenced figures to the end of
the section or article)).

As an example, the following is wrong:

<p>See this photo:</p>
<figure>
<dd><img src="photo.jpg" title="Photo" /></dd>
<dt>A photo of my dog in the garden.</dt>
</figure>

It should be replaced with either:

<p>See this photo of my dog in the garden:</p>
<p><img src="photo.jpg" title="Photo" /></p>

Or:

<p>See the attached photo.</p>
<figure>
<dd><img src="photo.jpg" title="Photo" /></dd>
<dt>A photo of my dog in the garden.</dt>
</figure>

Because in the original situation the photo is inline content that
cannot be moved away. The same would apply if the it were a table
element instead of an img element.


Jeroen van der Gun
http://www.jeroenvandergun.nl

Received on Wednesday, 2 December 2009 19:34:46 UTC