Without trying to drag this on Ben, I still fail to see the purpose of using the B tag over the SPAN tag and don't genuinely believe I'm declaring my own preference as a standard. If backward compatibility is the only argument then it only goes slightly further back than SPAN so the weight of that isn't sufficient to warrant what, to me, a human, doesn't *seem* logical.
SPAN has a greater range of acceptance, past, present and future, than B, as an empty tag to hook a style to, which is the only purpose of this. Non-backwards compatibility of the B tag is screen rendered bold text which may not be the purpose of the class hook, now, or in the future. SPAN is neutral which is what we want. Without turning this into a tit-for-tat, it's hard to resolve because, as you say, it's a debatable subject and one, really, that should be cleared up, whether for my benefit or the rest of the captive audience. Believe me, I'm all for learning and open to suggestions, but unless I get a sound and reasoned argument as to why B is *better* than SPAN, I won't be applying it to any markup I produce. My last word: SPAN, as a neutral hook for adding inline styles, is the recommended logical solution. Time for a cold one I think... ;) ---- I agree fully that this is a debatable topic, with merits (non-CSS backwards compatibility) and liabilities (possibly greater *human* incompatibility). However, I'll always get worked up when people declare their own preference is the standard, and I think it's useful to point out such a fallacy. Such declarations, although well- intentioned, do not help a person struggling to understand the standard. -- ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
