Comments on PAGEAUTH 2.4: Lists

Hi,

I'm hoping to do a thorough review of this document later this
week (I've had it on my todo list since last June, and now that
the document is in Last Call I guess it's now or never.)

For now, I just have a quick comment on section 2.4, "Lists":

    http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-19990226/wai-pageauth-tech#lists

    [Checkpoint 5.2] Encode list structure and list items properly.
    [Priority 2] The HTML list elements DL, UL, and OL (available in
    HTML 3.2 and HTML 4.0) should only be used to create lists, not
    for formatting effects such as indentation.

    When possible, use ordered (numbered) lists to help navigation.

and the example it gives is:

    Example.
    
    Instead of nesting bulleted lists like this:
    
      * writing tools
           + pens
                o highlighters
                     # red
                     # green
                     # blue
                o ball-point
                     # green
                     # purple
                     # mauve
           + pencils
                o soft lead
                o #2 lead
      * erasers

[...]

    Use ordered lists (or make sure to put distinguishing
    information at the beginning of each list item):
    
     1. writing tools
          1. pens
               1. highlighters
                    1. red
                    2. green
                    3. blue
               2. ball-point
                    1. green
                    2. purple
                    3. mauve
          1. pencils
               1. soft lead
               2. #2 lead
     2. erasers

But this doesn't seem like a good example of an ordered list at
all -- the items in these lists don't have a particular order to
them (green, purple, and mauve aren't in that order for any
particular reason.)

I suggest that this example be changed to use list items that
really ought to be ordered. (like giving instructions on how
to do something.)

-- 
Gerald Oskoboiny       <gerald@w3.org>  +1 617 253 2920
System Administrator   http://www.w3.org/People/Gerald/
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)      http://www.w3.org/

Received on Saturday, 6 March 1999 20:58:11 UTC