[whatwg] <b> Lede Example

One of the examples of <b> is marking up a lede paragraph:

  http://www.whatwg.org/html5#the-b-element

Is a lede semantically relevant to the document such that it needs to be
in the mark-up?

Emboldening the first paragraph of an article seems like a matter of
style to me, similar to using a drop cap for the first letter.  For
example, if an article were syndicated to multiple news sites it's
conceivable that some would style the lede differently from other
paragraphs and some wouldn't -- and doing so or not wouldn't affect the
meaning of the article or its interpretation by readers.

So using CSS (I think article > h2 + p would do it) would seem more
appropriate than any mark-up here.  Especially since <b> is labelled as
"a last resort".

Highlighting specifically just the first sentence (even if the first
paragraph has multiple sentences) is more awkward, in that I don't think
it's currently possible with CSS.  But that it exists as a plausible
choice for presenting an article demonstrates how much a matter of
styling, rather than content, this area is.  And a limit of CSS should
be fixed in CSS, not HTML.  (<span class=lede> can always be used as a
work-around.)

Smylers

Received on Thursday, 18 June 2009 05:09:34 UTC