On Jul 13, 2006, at 11:49 AM, Sho Kuwamoto wrote:
For example, what is the difference between:
a) This is an <em>emphasized</em> point
vs.
b) This is an <span class="emphatic">emphasized</span> point
Presumably, (a) would be preferred over (b), although I personally
prefer (b). (I think strong and em are copouts, but that's a whole
other
story).
No need to presume here. It's directly stated on the process page:
http://microformats.org/wiki/process#Propose_a_Microformat
----
There are other things to try before developing a microformat. First,
ask yourself these questions:
1. Is there a standard element in XHTML that would work?
2. Is there a compound of XHTML elements that would work?
3. Ok, if the answer to the above two is 'no,' we can talk about
a microformat.
----
XHTML semantics take precedence over microformat semantics.
Ostensibly, the reason for preferring example A over example B is that
there are two systems of semantics for two different reasons. The HTML
view of the document says that the header is an h4. The microformats
view of the document says it's a "summary". Example A allows both
views
of the document to live together.
I think we prefer XHTML semantics over microformat semantics because
semantics only become useful when understood and XHTML is widely
understood.
Are the span and div tags
part of the HTML semantics, or are they just scaffolding to hold the
microformat information?
They're part of HTML. They're just parts that don't mean much.
In other words, should we ignore the span and
div tags when interpreting our document as HTML?
Until we have some need to communicate that something spans or
divides, yes, we should ignore those semantics. If they become
useful, we should use them.
This is essentially the same issue that people have with hacks like
adding <div class="topleft"> into a document, which is clearly
presentational.
Not necessarily. Consider the following:
<h1>For sale: used monitor</h1>
<div class="description">
<div class="bottom">The bottom of the monitor is in great
condition.</div>
<div class="topleft">There is a slight discoloration in the top-left
corner.</div>
</div>
The meaning of "topleft" here has nothing to do with the presentation
of the HTML document. The meanings of class attribute values are not
pre-defined. The meanings of XHTML tags are pre-defined.
Peace,
Scott
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