Re: maincontent extension - data on use of id=main and id=content in web pages

Hi Maciej,

> To my tastes, 'main' or 'content' to be a better name for this element
than 'maincontent'.

I personally would prefer to concentrate on the technical aspects of the
spec text definition of the feature, but a number of people have commented
on the name and it appears that there is a preference emerging for

<main> over <content> or <maincontent>

I am not wedded to the name <maincontent> and it can be easily changed to
<main> I will leave it as is for a while for further feedback and will
revisit when I bring it forward for publication as a FPWD.

regards
Steve

On 17 October 2012 08:02, Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@apple.com> wrote:

>
> <chair hat off>
>
> To my tastes, 'main' or 'content' to be a better name for this element
> than 'maincontent'.
>
> Regards,
> Maciej
>
> On Oct 16, 2012, at 4:47 PM, Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> In the process of developing the <maincontent> element spec [1] I looked
> at data from a number of sources [3] on frequency of usage  of id values to
> indicate the main content area of a web page.
>
> I  also used data [2] I gathered in April 2012 based on a URL list of the
> top 10,000 most popular web sites.
>
> In preparing the data [2] I subsetted the total usable HTML documents
> (approx 8900 pages - the home pages for sites in the top 10,000 URLs list )
> by searching for the use of the HTML5 doctype (approx 1545 pages). I
> figured that documents using the HTML5 doctype would provide the freshest
> code.
>
>
> What is apparent from the home page data in the sample:
> *  use of a descriptive id to value to identify the main content area of a
> web page is common.
> (id="main"|id="content"|id="maincontent"|id="content-main"|id="main-content"
> used on 39% of the pages in the sample [2])
>
>  * There is a strong correlation between use of role='main' on an element
> with id values of 'content' or 'main' or permutations. (when used = 101
> pages)  77% were on an element with id values of 'content' or 'main' or
> permutations.
> * There is a strong correlation between use of id values of 'content' or
> 'main' or permutations as targets for 'skip to content'/'skip to main
> content' links (when used = 67 pages) 78% of skip link targets # were
> elements with id values of 'content' or 'main' or permutations.
> * There appears to be a strong correlation in the identification of
> content areas (with id values of 'content' or 'main' or permutations.) as
> what is described in the spec as appropriate content to be contained with a
> <maincontent> element [1]:
>
> "The maincontent element represents<http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/rendering.html#represents>the main
> content section of the body of a document or application. The main
> content section consists of content that is directly related to or expands
> upon the central topic of a document or central functionality of an
> application.
> ...
> The main content section of a document includes content that is unique to
> that document and excludes content that is repeated across a set of
> documents such as site navigation links, copyright information, site logos
> and banners and search forms (unless the document or applications main
> function is that of a search form)."
>
> I have prepared approx 440 sample pages [4] from the same URL set with CSS
> to outline and identify use of container elements with id values of
> 'content' and/or 'main' and role=main, these samples can be used to
> visually assess how closely the spec text matches the reality of element
> usage with the stated id values.
>
> The first link in each list item links to the original page the second
> link prefixed with "copy" is the same page with the CSS added.
> http://www.html5accessibility.com/tests/HTML5-main-content/
>
>
>
> [1]
> https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-extensions/raw-file/tip/maincontent/index.html
>
> [2]
> http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2012/04/html5-accessibility-chops-data-for-the-masses/
>
> [3] http://triin.net/2006/06/12/CSS#figure-34,
> http://westciv.typepad.com/dog_or_higher/2005/11/real_world_sema.html,
> http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/mama-common-attributes/#id
> --
> with regards
>
> Steve Faulkner
> Technical Director - TPG
>
> www.paciellogroup.com | www.HTML5accessibility.com<http://www.html5accessibility.com/>|
> www.twitter.com/stevefaulkner
> HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives -
> dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/
> Web Accessibility Toolbar - www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html
>
>
>
>


-- 
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG

www.paciellogroup.com | www.HTML5accessibility.com |
www.twitter.com/stevefaulkner
HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives -
dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/
Web Accessibility Toolbar - www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html