Re: code, samp, kbd, var

beowulf wrote:
> On 5/14/07, Philip Taylor (Webmaster) <P.Taylor@rhul.ac.uk> wrote:

>> This I don't understand at all : what is "a semantic use for italics" ???
>> Italics are simply a highly stylised version of a base font; what has
>> such a concept to do with a document markup language ?
>>
> Sorry, but didn't Lachlan write: "var is one of the semantic uses for 
> italics"?
> You seem to have quoted him as saying: "a semantic use for italics"

No, I simply /asked/ 'what is "a semantic use for italics"'; I didn't
attribute the exact wording to Lachlan or anyone else, but it is
directly derivable from Lachlan's wording by a plural-to-singular
transformation.

> And if you ever have to 'mark up a document' you'd know that you need
> /something/ to say that this section should be in italics, or oblique,
> type. 

No, I have never needed to say that, and I have spent much of my
professional life marking up documents.  What I /have/ needed to
say is that (for example) "the next stretch of text is a foreign
phrase", or "the next stretch of text requires emphasis", or
"the next stretch of text is a scientific name", and then marked
up the document accordingly.  Saying "that this section should
be in italics, or oblique, type" is not a part of document
markup at all, but is something that has to be considered when
converting from marked-up to final format (i.e., something that
is within the aegis of CSS rather than of HTML).

Philip Taylor

Received on Monday, 14 May 2007 11:59:40 UTC