The heading, separator and name elements

Hi www-html@w3.org listees,

Some of my thoughts on the new XHTML 2.0 draft.

*** heading elements ***
I agree with those on this list that say we should get rid of h1-h6 as they
are no longer needed. Those concerned about <h> elements seem to be worried
about styling, ease of authoring and backwards-compatibility. I think they
need to be reminded that:
 1) The styling of <h> elements in nested <section> elements is not really
all that complex (as the Working Draft shows in its example).
 2) The authoring may be easier with h1-h6 elements but having two
alternatives schemes for the one purpose needlessly confuses and complicates
things. Also (and importantly!) h1-h6 allows bad semantic structure.
 3)  As the Working Draft itself states the ideas of backwards-compatibility
and deprecation are unnecessary because of namespaces. 
  Verdict:  The time to say farewell to h1-h6 is now!


*** separator element ***
Again I agree with those who can't see a reason for this element. Anything
separate can be in its own section. If you want a horizontal line like an
existing <hr> element you can style the section to have a top (or a bottom)
border. If you want an aural pause you can put that in a style sheet too.
  Verdict:  Unnecessary. Please don't include this in XHTML 2.0.


*** name elements ***
I put forward the idea to mark-up names (of things, people etc) with a
<name> element back in August last year.
(Please see post
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/2003Aug/0041.html) 
No-one rejected this proposal at the time yet neither is the <name> element
included in this current XHTML2 draft. I think the proposed element is a
worthy one as it adds in useful semantic value. (e.g.. it should be of
invaluable use in search engine indexing.) Why can't we add it in?
  Verdict:  Semantically useful so add it in.


regards,
Frank Reinthaler

















































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Received on Tuesday, 27 July 2004 10:33:45 UTC