- From: Smylers <Smylers@stripey.com>
- Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 15:41:08 +0100
- To: public-html@w3.org
Lachlan Hunt writes: > Smylers wrote: > > > James Graham writes: > > > > > something designed to strip away all the extraneous material from > > > a page whilst leaving the content ... would want to remove > > > sidebars whilst leaving pullouts (although possibly rearraging > > > them). > > Could you clarify the use case for doing that? Saving paper: wanting to print the useful parts of a webpage, without unnecessary clutter -- which can often push the main content into very narrow columns, spanning multiple sheets. > > That's a good point. Is it an argument for<main>? An<aside> > > _inside_ <main> could be kept, whereas one _parallel_ to<main> > > wouldn't? > > No. An <aside> inside an <article> or other <section> is already easy > to distinguish from one that is only within the <body>. Of course, for pages where it's appropriate to use <article> or <section>. I thought the recent push for <main> (or <content> or whatever) came from wanting an element to use for the main content of pages which _aren't_ articles or sections? I believe the counter-argument was that <body> is sufficient for such content -- that is, the main content is what's left after <header> and <footer> have been removed. But <aside> makes that awkward: some of them likely count as main content and some not. For example, consider the front page of a news site on which the main content is a list of headlines, linking to articles on other pages. The main flow presents these in reverse chronological order, but there are some boxes calling out features or recent big stories. That lot together is the page's main content (what a user visiting that page came to see) but is neither an article nor a section. But the page also has other site-wide content in columns down the side, for example adverts, a search box, and contact information. If the main content is directly in <body> and if <aside> is used for both the main content call-out boxes and for the site-wide page furniture, then it isn't possible to distinguish the two. Smylers
Received on Wednesday, 2 September 2009 14:37:45 UTC