Re: Separation of semantics and styling

On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:35:56 +1200, Chris Beall <Chris_Beall@prodigy.net>  
wrote:

> that HTML should represent the semantics of a document, with CSS
> representing presentational characteristics overlayed on those

Structure, but yeah...

> ... Most of Amaya seems to honor this separation, BUT
>
> On the toolbar of the Formatted view are three icons, each represented  
> by a single letter:
...
> But the icons for these three functions are STYLED, thus:
> E - Italic
> S - Boldfaced
> C - Monospaced (though it's hard to be sure with only one character...)
>     Moreover, the tooltip that appears when you hover over the "C" says
> "Fixed font", clearly a styling characteristic.
>
> These are, indeed, the default stylings provided by many browsers.
>
> Using these stylings, however, encourages the user to link them in his or
> her mind to the semantics, just the opposite of the stated W3C  
> philosophy.
>
> My preferred styling for <em> is (usually) text-decoration: underline,  
> and with no italics.  As soon as I've placed that into my style sheet,  
> the icons no longer represent what will happen when I apply the 'E' icon  
> to a string.
> [Yes, I verified that the icon does NOT change (no surprise) when such a
> style sheet is loaded.]

It would be interesting to use SVG for the icons - and thus indeed inherit  
the style from the stylesheet. Would this confuse or help users?

> 2. Change the tooltip for the "C" icon from "Fixed font" to "Code".

Yes, that would be good.

> I'm REALLY reluctant to bring up such a seemingly insignificant point,  
> but I
> have spent hours trying to explain to new (and some not-so-new) web site
> developers that the semantic / styling distinction exists and why.  A  
> tool
> produced under W3C auspices that skirts that distinction will make this  
> all
> the harder.

Well, "trivial" points may not get dealt with as a very high priority, but  
it is useful in setting priorities to see what would be done tomorrow in  
an ideal world, rather than just removing things from the list :)

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile                     chaals@opera.com
   hablo español  -  je parle français  -  jeg lærer norsk
      Peek into the kitchen: http://snapshot.opera.com/

Received on Monday, 13 February 2006 15:00:25 UTC