Re: Change back the semantics of <cite>

Smylers On 09-09-11 02.16:

> Leif Halvard Silli writes:
>> Smylers On 09-09-11 00.16:
>>> Leif Halvard Silli writes:



>> Isn't <code> any useful since it can be used for all kinds of code?
> 
> All kinds of code are typically presented in the same way -- for
> example, a typewritery font.  So <code> usefully, and correctly, conveys
> generally codeyness to users, for all kinds of code; it isn't precise,
> but nor is it misleading.


If names needs no special styling, then why do you think it needs 
need to be contrasted (via styling) from /work/ sources?  Can't 
users discern name and work just be reading the content, as they 
do for <code>?

> Whereas you're proposing <cite> to have two distinct purposes.


HTML 5, as currently defined, builds two purposes for <cite> right
into the spec: It can be used to refer to sources, but it can also
be used for works that aren't sources.

HTML 4, by contrast, defines only one role for cite - 
source/authority markup.

Btw, I just checked the last book of my fav author. It has a 
person register. And no index register. Roughly none of the names 
in the text flow are rendered in italics. But all "work" sources 
are rendered in italics. But *only* the first time they occur.

I have not heard anything from you, or seen it in the draft, that 
<cite> should only be use the /first/ time a work is pointed to. 
It sounds, from you, as if every occurrences of a reference to a 
source could be marked up with <cite>.

That I disagree with. <cite> comes across as something that 
/reminds/ about <dfn> in that <cite> has "defining instance 
power". Whether you use <cite> about person sources or work 
sources, you cannot simply use it 100% of the time. The usual 
thing - and this goes for <dfn> also - is to distinguish the name 
of the source the first time it is introduced, and to give context 
(aka description/definition) on that occasion.
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Wednesday, 16 September 2009 06:15:43 UTC