Re: what is dt?

Shelley asked:
> For the past ten years or so, dl, dt, and dd have been defined  
> within the context of a definition list. People may have used them  
> for other things, but no where has there been even a hint that such  
> use was "acceptable" or appropriate.

The HTML 4 spec gives more than a hint, advising authors (incorrectly)  
to use dl, dt and dd for dialogues.
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/lists.html#edef-DL

"Another application of DL, for example, is for marking up dialogues,  
with each DT naming a speaker, and each DD containing his or her words."

> But we dropped dialog in favor of paragraph elements, and using bold  
> <b> for the person ....(!?)

I concur completely with both your exclamation point and your question  
mark. It's nutty advice that will be ignored by authors.

> And we've managed to find two new, completely different uses of dt  
> and dd.

Less than ideal, I agree, but far, far better than using <legend>.  
Using <dt> is the lesser of 18 evils.

-- 
Jeremy Keith

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Received on Tuesday, 15 September 2009 20:43:09 UTC