- From: Jukka K. Korpela <jukka.k.korpela@kolumbus.fi>
- Date: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 12:05:47 +0300
- To: HTMLWG WG <public-html@w3.org>
2013-09-09 11:24, Steve Faulkner wrote: > we are paving a cowpath with <cite> (and <blockquote>), the default > styling of cite by browsers should not be a deciding factor. The style > is and can be overridden Cows have taken different paths, really. Moreover, since the only known actual effect of <cite> or <blockquote> is in rendering, the default styling is relevant. Why would you use markup that has no other effect than indenting or italic and then start wondering how to override that effect? I know that I am exaggerating a bit, since the markup may have marginal effects beyond visual rendering, but most of the effects presented in discussions over the years (including those by my previous HTML Purist self) are just imaginary. > > "When a practice is already widespread among authors, consider > adopting it rather than forbidding it or inventing something new." > http://www.w3.org/TR/html-design-principles/#pave-the-cowpaths > Practices differ, and if specifications described <blockquote> and <cite> by referring to their impact on default rendering only, this would in no way prevent authors from using them for quotations or citations. And "something new" would not be defined, or needed. There seems to be an implied idea that specifications must address all frequently asked questions like "which markup do I use for.... ?" But in fact, many questions of that kind are not addressed at all, or need to be addressed. When markup has no functional impact (browsers and search engines treat it blindly, possibly applying default styling, but nothing more), the choice of markup becomes a matter of coding style. Coding style may be a personal decision by an author, or a decision in a community, as in an enterprise where different people are expected to apply the same coding style. Either way, HTML specifications need not address the issues. A company or an educational institute may well require that HTML documents use a particular coding style for quotations; it will most likely contain many requirements far beyond anything that could sensibly be included in an HTML specification. -- Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Received on Monday, 9 September 2013 09:06:12 UTC