On Sun, Dec 26, 2021 at 09:48:35AM -0800, Per Bothner wrote: > > > On 12/26/21 09:33, Patrice Dumas wrote: > > Hello, > > > > Currently <span id="id"></span> is used for anchors, whether they > > originate from @anchor, in some cases from @node and sectionning > > @-commands, @*index, ... It is syntactically correct, but I think that > > it would be semantically better to use <a> and keep <span> for inline > > text that needs some kind of formatting information. > > > > Also I propose to add class to the anchors to distinguish their source. > > > > Any opposition/idea? > > I don't think using <a> for anchors is a good idea. The WHATHG spec says: > > "If the a element has no href attribute, then the element represents a > placeholder > for where a link might otherwise have been placed, if it had been > relevant, consisting of just the element's contents." > > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/a does not suggest > or give > any examples of using <a> without an href attribute.
But there is nowhere where id in a lone element is proposed, so this argument is not very compelling not to use <a> for that purpose. <a> was used for that semantically before, while <span> is explicitely described as being relevant in relation to its content. For those reasons, it still seems to me that <a> is better than <span> and actually the best choice among elements. -- Pat
