[whatwg] Request: Explicit grouping within <dl>

Hello,

In the current specs <dt>s and <dd>s are only grouped imlicitly. This 
leaves us with a DOM where <dt>s and <dd>s that are not related in as 
term&description share the same parent. I'd like to see a way to 
seperate the 'siblings' from the 'cousins' in a more explicit way. 
Something along the line of the <di> from the XHTML 2 specs 
(http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-list.html#edef_list_di).

    <dl>

       <di>
          <dt>...</dt>
          <dd>...</dd>
          <dd>...</dd>
       </di>

       <di>
          <dt>...</dt>
          <dd>...</dd>
       </di>

    </dl>

A <di> (to stick to that name) will enhance the logics of the DOM 
structure and will give better hooks for layout and behaviour. I know 
these last two arguments are non arguments in the web standards 
community, but I believe that good design and behaviour are based upon 
the semantics of the content (collapsing FAQ's / borders that group 
terms with their definitions).
Within a <di> the order of <dt>s and <dd>s could be free, which might 
fit the content better.



Perhaps <di> could be used in a <dialog> as well to add and/or group 
additional meta content:

    <dialog>

        <di>
            <dt>...</dt>
            <dd>...</dd>
        </di>

        <di><time>...general time marker...</time></di>

        <di>
            <time>...time of this reply...</time>
            <dt>...</dt>
            <dd>...</dd>
        </di>

    </dialog>


cheers!
Sander


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Received on Thursday, 24 May 2007 18:42:13 UTC