Re: Cleaning House

Philip Taylor (Webmaster) wrote:
> The purpose of semantic markup is to separate content from form, to
> improve accessibility, and to provide an infrastructure whereby
> additional value can be derived from a properly tagged document using
> appropriate tools.

The ultimate aim is communication, and separation of content and 
presentation, improved accessibility and value-added content can 
certainly help to improve communication.

But it's important to understand that before any new semantic feature 
can be added to the language, there really needs to be good, solid 
evidence to prove that the feature actually meets those goals.  This is 
why it's important to focus on problems, use cases and the actual 
tangible benefits for users, authors and implementers.

There is no point adding new semantics and claiming that it improves 
accessibility, adds significant value, or whatever, without actually 
backing up such claims with real evidence.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/

Received on Friday, 4 May 2007 16:36:08 UTC