[whatwg] the cite element

Erik Vorhes writes:

> A use-case for "person's name" in the context of <cite>:
> 
> In reference to many Classical texts one will often refer to the
> author in lieu of the title (or in some cases that author's corpus).

That isn't an argument for people's names _in general_ being marked up;
it's an argument for marking them up in the specific case where they are
used as (nicknames of) titles of works.

> E.g.:
> 
> <p>You should read <cite>Herodotus</cite>.</p>

That's using "Herodotus" as the title of a work.  In many fields it's
common to refer to well-known works by nicknames, such as 'Smith &
Thomas', 'The Dragon Book', 'The Red Book', or 'The White Album'.  So
<cite> should be used for them.

But it doesn't follow that <cite> should be used for any other
occurrences of those terms -- the people Smith and Thomas, or a book
which just happens to be red.

Smylers

Received on Sunday, 20 September 2009 02:09:20 UTC