Re: aside and figure elements

Leif Halvard Silli, Tue, 8 Jun 2010 14:45:47 +0200:
> Laura Carlson, Tue, 8 Jun 2010 06:21:32 -0500:
>> Hi Leif,
>> 
>>> The
>>> point that should be emphasized is that a <figure>, regardless of its
>>> close or distant relationship to the rest of the page, is an entity of
>>> its own.
>> 
>> How is that different from aside?
  […]
> Attempt on defining the difference: 
> 
> 	<aside> cannot be moved to another context without loosing a lot of 
> its original meaning. If you loose the link to the context - in any 
> meaning of "link" - the <aside> stops functioning as an aside. Being 
> "tangentially related" it *is* related and dependent on to the context.
> 
> 	<figure>, while it can also "take up" meaning from the context in 
> which it is located, it may also be moved to another location and still 
> be meaningful in itself and on its own. Thus a <figure> can be dropped 
> into many different contexts and still be meaningful.
> 
> To better discern <figure> from <aside>,  how about *requiring* 
> <figure> to have a summary/caption? Because, the way I see it, unless a 
> <figure> has a caption, it is difficult to perceive it as an 
> independent entity suitable for more than one context.

Next question: is it any *useful* to discern between <figure> and 
<aside>? 

I think, yes. I think an AT user e.g. might want to ask the user agent 
to provide an overview over all the figures a page/article has. This 
might be useful and interesting on its own.  Whereas to ask for a list 
of all the <aside>s of the page/article, while it could be interesting 
to read all the asides, one by one, the reader needs to have a lot more 
context for such a rehearsal to meaningful.

I mean ... an 140 character message depends a lot on the reader knowing 
context.

(I hope I am not putting too much of my private interpretation of the 
word "aside" into this.)
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Tuesday, 8 June 2010 12:59:00 UTC