Having read most of the responses i'd like to make this point now.
I was actually inspired to begin this discussion when I saw the
comparisons of XHTML2 and HTML5 and noticed that XHTML2 seems to have
<section> and <seperator>, it just made me think about whether
<seperator> was actually necessary if you have <section>.
I like the way XHTML2 is going to be doing things (on the whole),
<seperator> rather than <hr> and the <section> tag.
My opinion is that as things are now (HTML4/XHTML1) the notion of having
a seperator has a semantic value since it can help clear up some
ambiguity, though it's something I try to avoid using by structuring my
documents in such a way that there is no ambiguity as to which heading
content belongs to. If we get to the point where we have the <section>
tag that actually means something semantic (and is announced by screen
readers), I believe the <seperator> becomes redundant for all situations
that I can conceive of.
- Andrew Ingram
Andrew Ingram wrote:
I've found myself wondering just what semantic meaning the <hr> tag
adds to a document. The typical usage is when you want to separate
sections of a page. The thing is that a <hN> tag indicates a new
section too. Another issue is that we generally seem to put them in
our markup then hide them using display: none which makes them
invisible to screen readers anyway. Is anyone actually gaining any
benefit from the <hr> tag other than people who browse with styles
disabled?
I always tend to structure my documents using clear headings and have
no obvious (to me) need for use of horizontal rules. When I write a
document in a word processor I never use horizontal lines to indicate
a new section, I use a new heading.
I guess what i'm asking is, if you structure a document correctly
should you ever need to use the <hr> tag?
One of these days i'm going to have to start a thread about something
other than simple curiosities :)
- Andrew Ingram
*******************************************************************
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*******************************************************************
