[Bug 10997] New: add clear indication of whether an element is singleton or open/close

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10997

           Summary: add clear indication of whether an element is
                    singleton or open/close
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Windows XP
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML5 spec (editor: Ian Hickson)
        AssignedTo: ian@hixie.ch
        ReportedBy: jmichae3@yahoo.com
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org,
                    public-html@w3.org


the current html, xhtml, wml specifications do not seem to give any clear
indication of whether an element is a singleton or whether it is open/close
style.

everybody writes option, dd, dt, li and similar elements their own way.  some
write it <option></option> and some write it <option/> and some write it
<option>.  w3schools seems to get this mixed up as well.
and then there's the validators, which have their own idea of how things should
be done, for instance, the html5 validator thinks the singleton option element
should have open/close style.
please provide clear indication of the tag style with examples and in the
description of the element, 

Element Format: open/close
OR
Element Format: singleton

or,

Singleton: yes
OR
Singleton: no



w3schools says that to future proof your html, you should always close your
tags.  since they can't even be consistent, I hardly know what to think.

this should clean up a lot of bad HTML in the world.

If you have a more clear wording, I would like to see it.  Why?  because there
are a few things that have been a mess for many years, and it's time to clean
things up with clarity.

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Received on Saturday, 9 October 2010 07:55:35 UTC