- From: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 00:51:03 +0000 (UTC)
On Thu, 14 Jul 2005, dolphinling wrote: > > > > A paragraph is typically a block of text with one or more sentences > > that discuss a particular topic, as in typography, but can also be > > used for more general thematic grouping. For instance, an address is > > also a paragraph, as is a part of a form, a byline, or a stanza in a > > poem. > > Without the content model change, that quote is good[1]. If the content > model is changed, though, it would seem to give <p> two meanings: a > standalone piece of text, and a grammatical paragraph. Only the first is > what it should be; the latter is unnecessary. It only has one meaning, IMHO, namely "thematic grouping". A grammatical paragraph is one example of thematic grouping, but there are others, as noted in the text quoted above and in the examples near it. <p> is basically the simple element that is a level below <section>, IMHO. I don't agree that <p> is or has ever been for marking up "a self- contained block of text" or "a standalone piece of text". I don't see that the text of a paragraph need be self-contained or standalone, and indeed, there are examples where it doesn't contain any text at all: <p>Bla bla bla</p> <p><img src="diagram-reiterating-bla-bla-bla" alt=""></p> Note that the image here has no alt text; its alt text would in fact be exactly what the previous paragraph stated, the image being a redundant reiteration. Another example: <p> <label> Comments: <textarea .../> </label> </p> Certainly in this case the paragraph is not standalone. Similarly, a byline isn't self-contained; it's meaningless without the content it is "bylining" (as it were). -- Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,. Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
Received on Thursday, 14 July 2005 17:51:03 UTC