- From: Elliotte Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>
- Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2007 06:05:12 -0400
Ian Hickson wrote: > Henri's understanding is what I originally intended. Is there something in > the spec that suggests otherwise? Should I explicitly say that footnotes > and endnotes shouldn't be marked up using <details>? > If you're really sure about that, yes. However, please do consider the difference between print and onscreen media. In particular, consider that footnotes and endnotes are placed where they are in print because we can't really hide them until the reader asks to see them. If it were possible to put them inline, but only show them after an explicit reader request, then publishers might indeed do that. Arguably that's what an end note is. It is not visible on the page until the user flips to the back of the book. In some books, the end notes are now consigned to the web so you have to go even further. Here's what I would ask: irrespective of presentation issues like when and where the notes appear on the page, what is the meaning of a details element and what is the meaning of a hypothetical footnote element? Are they significantly different? If one can't distinguish these two without referring to presentation, then they are indeed the same thing, and details can and should be used for footnotes. CSS can be used to indicate presentation. -- Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo at metalab.unc.edu Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published! http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA/
Received on Wednesday, 8 August 2007 03:05:12 UTC