Re: more CSS and tables

Vadim Plessky wrote:

> 
> please provide content when FO)NT can't be replaced with SPAN or DIV


It's very difficult to think of legitimate uses for SPAN.  DIV might
be used to set the overall font for an abstract, as HTML doesn't have
structural elements at the DOCBOOK sort of level - it is supposed to
be light weight.


> 
> what's wrong with:
> 
>  so, how you <span style="color: green">suppose</span> to change color inline?
> 
> I mean, why do you prefer <em> to <span>?


Because the span indicates that the use of the greeen colour is
just a designer's whim, and is complete noise in terms of the
meaning, whereas em indidcates the colour is being used to stress
the word, and, a good house style will always use the same way of
stressing, at least in that sort of division, so it can put in the
house style rules.  Even if you don't explicitly think of speech
browsers, a speech browser can emphasise the em case.  Even if you
don't think of monochrome displays, the monochrome browser can
bold or italic it.

Also, and possibly more importantly, the user knows about em, and
can define their own rule, to provide them (or their clients) with
a predictable result.  (You could also provide user style sheets that
people could use on this and other pages.


> 
> Hmm... Are you sure that all browsers (or all future versions of browsers) 
> will support <em>?


Losing em would lose one of the key essences of HTML.  You would 
probably be left with a page description language, of which there
are much better ones, like PDF, although SVG might succeed - it
is a PDF descendant.

     
> 
> do you see any difference with:
> 
> aa {

Yes.  The first will generate a tree navigation structure in
Amaya, html2ps, and possibly some other browsers, and will
be used to construct the summary of the page by some search
engines (according to DJ Delorie), whereas the second will
produce the same effect on a visual browser, but carry no
other meaining.  ISO HTML actually has very strong requirements
on the use of Hn.

I'd point out that use of such markup is a requirement of at least
one of the WCAG levels.

Received on Tuesday, 8 January 2002 17:20:06 UTC