Re: My thoughts on XHTML 2

Kelvin Chung wrote:
>
> 1. Is there any point to having <sub> or <sup>?  I cannot find any real
> semantic value in these two elements.

  "The mass of the large block is <var>m<sub>1</sub></var>..."

  9ft<sup>2</sup>

  C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>12</sub>O<sub>6</sub>

<index> may be appropriate for variable subscripts, but
I don't think it makes much sense for chemical formulae.
I've never heard of the subscript being referred to as
an "index", but I have heard variable indices being
referred to as "subscripts".

> 2. Would <l/> (ie. An <l> element with no content) be the same as <br/> in
> the long run?

Depends on how it's implemented. If the definition is changed to
allow
   l {display: block}
as the default, then no, it would not have the same effect as <br/>
because multiple <br/>s will create empty line whereas multiple
unstyled empty blocks will only create one line break. (An empty
block with no padding, border, or margins has no height.)

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/2003Jan/0274.html

> 3. Is there any point in keeping <a> or <object> now that any element can
> act as such?  Perhaps an accessibility objective...?

If I want to link to _python.org_ in the middle of a sentence,
what element would I use? (It's a reference, not a variable or
an emphasized word.)

> 6. With <section> and <h>, is there any point in keeping <h1> to <h6>?

I don't see a strong reason to take <h1-6> out, and so IMO
it should be preserved for backwards-compatability. It may
also be useful for unstructured texts that have headings
but no definite sections.

I'd like to note that the latest version of DocBook has
numbered sections in addition to a <section> element. However,
the Simplified version (afaict) does not. The WG might want to
ask the DocBook Technical Committee about their reasons for
keeping/dropping <bridgehead> and <sect1> et al.

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/docbook/
http://www.docbook.org/tdg/en/html/sect1.html
http://www.docbook.org/tdg/en/html/bridgehead.html

> 7. I'm not sure on this, but is multiple instances of <title> permitted so
> that you can have titles in different languages

I believe that comment refers to the practice of duplicating
the title's contents in an <h1> header.

> 6. The difference between <section> and <div> should be made more clear.  I
> have a hard time determining the difference, and I fear that people may not
> care about the difference, seeing that <div> elements currently do what
> <section> would do anyways.

I suggest
   section { margin-left: 2em; }
for UA's default rendering.
(Of course, language direction would need to be taken into account.)

~fantasai

Received on Tuesday, 21 January 2003 15:25:34 UTC