- From: Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2009 16:35:22 -0500
- To: John Foliot <jfoliot@stanford.edu>
- Cc: Lachlan Hunt <lachlan.hunt@lachy.id.au>, Jonas Sicking <jonas@sicking.cc>, James Graham <jgraham@opera.com>, public-html@w3.org
On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 4:27 PM, John Foliot<jfoliot@stanford.edu> wrote: > Tab Atkins Jr. wrote: >> >> Certainly! That was my argument, in fact - that the differences >> between <header>/<footer>/<aside> are purely visual when used as page >> structure. > > Uhmm... I'll only back that half-way. 'Headers' and 'Footers' are > structural elements which (I think) are pretty well understood. In fact, I > would suggest that in the print world (including Braille output, etc.) a > 'page' header and footer is a basic construct - the header and footer would > traditionally contain persistent information (think header and footer in a > MS Word document) - be it a 'Letterhead' branding or location footer > (Offices in New York, London and Tokyo), and even non-visual users > could/would benefit here. You're talking here about <header>/<footer> within an article context, where I agree with you. I explicitly specified that I meant it in terms of (web)page structure, where the three regions are effectively identical in practice. >> The only reason they have >> different names is because those are the classes we give <div>s >> filling those roles to define their visual display, and classnames >> were the big determiner of what new elements to add in this realm. > > The very fact that some content is sitting inside of a specific, 'not the > main content' div suggests that it is, well, not the main content, and > styling concerns aside, I believe that for all users / user agents we should > be able to signify this idea programmatically - that is / was I believe the > intent of <aside>. The real problem is the choice of term, not the concept > it seeks to address. I'm agreeing with you again! Yes, <header>/<footer>/<aside> all indicate that the contained content is not the main content. In the context of an article they carry additional specific meaning, but in the context of a webpage they convey only a visual distinction. ~TJ
Received on Friday, 4 September 2009 21:36:19 UTC