[whatwg] <div> as a wrapper for inline content

I suspect requiring the content model of <div> to be block only might  
be an annoyance as far as a smooth upgrade path goes. Extremely  
superficial anecdotal evidence suggests that even making the content  
model bimorphic makes some Strict blogs not conform to an (X)HTML5  
draft grammar.

It seems to me that <div> is often used as an adapter that allows DTD- 
valid Strict pages to put inline stuff where the DTD wants block. I  
can see why this might be unpleasant or inelegant, but do we really  
want to annoy the potential early adopters who are now using such  
tricks to make their pages valid as Strict? (The easy way to weasel  
out is, of course, to state that a <div> that only has inline content  
constitutes a paragraph. And, behold, paragraphs with struct-inline  
children become possible in text/html as a side effect. :-)

(I don't have a proper opinion here, at least not yet, but requiring  
block content makes my a bit uneasy considering practice even though  
I agree in principle.)

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen at iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/

Received on Saturday, 30 December 2006 04:12:59 UTC