RE: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-07 Thread michael.brockington
 -Original Message-
 From: listdad@webstandardsgroup.org 
 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rimantas Liubertas
 Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 11:46 PM
 To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org
 Subject: Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics
 
   Ok, let's take img src=linebreak.gif alt=Horizontal 
 rule /. In
   visual media it will be horizontal rule, aural browser 
 will announce
   it as image: horizontal rule. Is it any worse than just 
 Horizontal
   rule?
 
  First, move beyond screen reading technology - web 
 accessibility is way more
  than web pages for the blind.
 
 Believe or not, I am aware of it.
 

Then why does everyone seem to be ignoring users of Lynx et al?
These will not display any CSS adornments, nor any clever images,
whether foreground or background.

Surpisingly enough, the HR element will be rendered, in some manner,
such that it is the only one of the methods described that will pass on
to the user the Authors intention.

Mike


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-07 Thread Barney Carroll
My last email probably sounded too upbeat to merit acknowledgment, but 
for the record are we all agreed that a separator element is a good 
idea, just not in the form of hr?


This is really getting out of hand. Very little new meaning circulating.


Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-07 Thread Rob Kirton

separator does the job for me, as long as it is supported by screen
readers

- Rob

On 07/02/07, Barney Carroll [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


My last email probably sounded too upbeat to merit acknowledgment, but
for the record are we all agreed that a separator element is a good
idea, just not in the form of hr?

This is really getting out of hand. Very little new meaning circulating.


Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***





***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Barney Carroll

Christian Montoya wrote:

The section actually carries semantic weight, and is meant to be
used carefully... the div does not.

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#edef_structural_section

Then again, XHTML 2 does have a separator element which is just like 
hr...


http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#edef_structural_separator

But you will notice that XHTML 2 has both div and section, and
div is weightless while separator is not.


I am intrigued by this. There are those who believe HR is completely 
obsolete /on a semantic level/ because, as we all supposedly know, a 
document's semantic structure is divided entirely by headings. I would 
like to see if these people have ever swallowed their own medicine and 
then developed a site that satisfies anyone.


Furthermore, surely these people should be horrified at the idea of 
sections and separators?


Occasionally I get tempted to abide by these bizarre rules and create my 
heading minefield of a document that will satisfy these monsters when 
they switch to the ultimate view-source browsing experience, but use a 
display:none class to maintain readability by human beings with an 
existing culture of literature to consider.


Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rob Kirton

Barney

I can't recall ever finding the need to use an hr and never normally
consider doing so. It is purely presentational, i.e. it draws a line across
a page, nothing more, nothing less.  It conveys nothing about what is above,
below or indeed why indeed we have drawn a line.

The major point of semantics is so that documents can be analysed by search
engines, allowing us to reference later and obtain information (hopefully)
with meaning.  I realise HTML is never going to fully satisfy that, though I
can't see us all recording data as RDF tuples full time in the near future.

I suspect you will find that no meaning is ever attached to a br by a
search engine, the only meaning that is attached to it, is one which has
been made in the mind of the person who views the page, which is purely
presentational and has nothing whatsoever to do with semantics .

regards

- Rob


On 06/02/07, Barney Carroll [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Christian Montoya wrote:
 The section actually carries semantic weight, and is meant to be
 used carefully... the div does not.

 http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#edef_structural_section

 Then again, XHTML 2 does have a separator element which is just like
 hr...


http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#edef_structural_separator

 But you will notice that XHTML 2 has both div and section, and
 div is weightless while separator is not.

I am intrigued by this. There are those who believe HR is completely
obsolete /on a semantic level/ because, as we all supposedly know, a
document's semantic structure is divided entirely by headings. I would
like to see if these people have ever swallowed their own medicine and
then developed a site that satisfies anyone.

Furthermore, surely these people should be horrified at the idea of
sections and separators?

Occasionally I get tempted to abide by these bizarre rules and create my
heading minefield of a document that will satisfy these monsters when
they switch to the ultimate view-source browsing experience, but use a
display:none class to maintain readability by human beings with an
existing culture of literature to consider.

Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***





***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Tim

Rob,

I took Barney's point to be if these people have ever swallowed their  
own medicine and then developed a site that satisfies anyone


OK! HR might be about markup not semantics and you have never had to  
use it, I am amazed that presentation has no importance at all and go  
back to Barney's comment. HR can also says how far above and below text  
will flow. It can end text after a floated element with clear:both. It  
is really useful for presentation for humans to divide information into  
sections. I don't give a rats if bots attach no meaning to it.



Tim


On 06/02/2007, at 9:38 PM, Rob Kirton wrote:


Barney

I can't recall ever finding the need to use an hr and never normally  
consider doing so. It is purely presentational, i.e. it draws a line  
across a page, nothing more, nothing less.  It conveys nothing about  
what is above, below or indeed why indeed we have drawn a line.


The major point of semantics is so that documents can be analysed by  
search engines, allowing us to reference later and obtain information  
(hopefully) with meaning.  I realise HTML is never going to fully  
satisfy that, though I can't see us all recording data as RDF tuples  
full time in the near future.


I suspect you will find that no meaning is ever attached to a br by  
a search engine, the only meaning that is attached to it, is one which  
has been made in the mind of the person who views the page, which is  
purely presentational and has nothing whatsoever to do with semantics  
.


regards

- Rob


On 06/02/07, Barney Carroll [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 The section actually carries semantic weight, and is meant to be
 used carefully... the div does not.

  
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod- 
structural.html#edef_structural_section


 Then again, XHTML 2 does have a separator element which is just  
like

 hr...

  
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod- 
structural.html#edef_structural_separator


 But you will notice that XHTML 2 has both div and section, and
 div is weightless while separator is not.

I am intrigued by this. There are those who believe HR is completely
obsolete /on a semantic level/ because, as we all supposedly know, a
document's semantic structure is divided entirely by headings. I would
like to see if these people have ever swallowed their own medicine and
then developed a site that satisfies anyone.

Furthermore, surely these people should be horrified at the idea of
sections and separators?

Occasionally I get tempted to abide by these bizarre rules and create  
my

heading minefield of a document that will satisfy these monsters when
they switch to the ultimate view-source browsing experience, but use a
display:none class to maintain readability by human beings with an
existing culture of literature to consider.

Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***





***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

The Editor
Heretic Press
http://www.hereticpress.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rob Kirton

Tim

Fine, I wouldn't say never use it, if that is the way you are inclined.
However there is nothing it does that cannot be achieved by CSS in using
border properties or background image properties.  I really am one of those
crackpots who does not believe in wasting a tag.  If the tag does not impart
meaning, I try not to use it.   I actually once built a (albeit) small site
without using div :0)

- Rob

On 06/02/07, Tim [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Rob,

I took Barney's point to be if these people have ever swallowed their
own medicine and then developed a site that satisfies anyone

OK! HR might be about markup not semantics and you have never had to
use it, I am amazed that presentation has no importance at all and go
back to Barney's comment. HR can also says how far above and below text
will flow. It can end text after a floated element with clear:both. It
is really useful for presentation for humans to divide information into
sections. I don't give a rats if bots attach no meaning to it.


Tim


On 06/02/2007, at 9:38 PM, Rob Kirton wrote:

 Barney

 I can't recall ever finding the need to use an hr and never normally
 consider doing so. It is purely presentational, i.e. it draws a line
 across a page, nothing more, nothing less. It conveys nothing about
 what is above, below or indeed why indeed we have drawn a line.

 The major point of semantics is so that documents can be analysed by
 search engines, allowing us to reference later and obtain information
 (hopefully) with meaning. I realise HTML is never going to fully
 satisfy that, though I can't see us all recording data as RDF tuples
 full time in the near future.

 I suspect you will find that no meaning is ever attached to a br by
 a search engine, the only meaning that is attached to it, is one which
 has been made in the mind of the person who views the page, which is
 purely presentational and has nothing whatsoever to do with semantics
 .

 regards

 - Rob


 On 06/02/07, Barney Carroll [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  The section actually carries semantic weight, and is meant to be
  used carefully... the div does not.
 
 
 http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-
 structural.html#edef_structural_section
 
  Then again, XHTML 2 does have a separator element which is just
 like
  hr...
 
 
 http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-
 structural.html#edef_structural_separator
 
  But you will notice that XHTML 2 has both div and section, and
  div is weightless while separator is not.

 I am intrigued by this. There are those who believe HR is completely
 obsolete /on a semantic level/ because, as we all supposedly know, a
 document's semantic structure is divided entirely by headings. I would
 like to see if these people have ever swallowed their own medicine and
 then developed a site that satisfies anyone.

 Furthermore, surely these people should be horrified at the idea of
 sections and separators?

 Occasionally I get tempted to abide by these bizarre rules and create
 my
 heading minefield of a document that will satisfy these monsters when
 they switch to the ultimate view-source browsing experience, but use a
 display:none class to maintain readability by human beings with an
 existing culture of literature to consider.

 Regards,
 Barney


 ***
 List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
 Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
 Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 ***




 ***
 List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
 Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
 Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 ***
The Editor
Heretic Press
http://www.hereticpress.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***




***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Tim
Gosh Rob you are stingy with code, spiders must love your sites, but 
what about humans, do we also have standards for them or only for bots?


Not a comma wasted, I am of the verbose variety.

Cheers Rob :-)


On 06/02/2007, at 10:24 PM, Rob Kirton wrote:


Tim

Fine, I wouldn't say never use it, if that is the way you are 
inclined.  However there is nothing it does that cannot be achieved by 
CSS in using border properties or background image properties.  I 
really am one of those crackpots who does not believe in wasting a 
tag.  If the tag does not impart meaning, I try not to use it.   I 
actually once built a (albeit) small site without using div :0)


- Rob

On 06/02/07, Tim [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


I took Barney's point to be if these people have ever swallowed their
own medicine and then developed a site that satisfies anyone

OK! HR might be about markup not semantics and you have never had to
use it, I am amazed that presentation has no importance at all and go
back to Barney's comment. HR can also says how far above and below 
text

will flow. It can end text after a floated element with clear:both. It
is really useful for presentation for humans to divide information 
into

sections. I don't give a rats if bots attach no meaning to it.


Tim


On 06/02/2007, at 9:38 PM, Rob Kirton wrote:

  Barney

 I can't recall ever finding the need to use an hr and never 
normally

 consider doing so. It is purely presentational, i.e. it draws a line
 across a page, nothing more, nothing less. It conveys nothing about
 what is above, below or indeed why indeed we have drawn a line.

 The major point of semantics is so that documents can be analysed by
 search engines, allowing us to reference later and obtain 
information

 (hopefully) with meaning. I realise HTML is never going to fully
 satisfy that, though I can't see us all recording data as RDF tuples
 full time in the near future.

 I suspect you will find that no meaning is ever attached to a br 
by
 a search engine, the only meaning that is attached to it, is one 
which

 has been made in the mind of the person who views the page, which is
 purely presentational and has nothing whatsoever to do with 
semantics

 .

 regards

 - Rob


 On 06/02/07, Barney Carroll [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  The section actually carries semantic weight, and is meant to 
be

  used carefully... the div does not.
 
 
 http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-
 structural.html#edef_structural_section
 
  Then again, XHTML 2 does have a separator element which is just
 like
  hr...
 
 
 http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-
 structural.html#edef_structural_separator
 
  But you will notice that XHTML 2 has both div and section, 
and

  div is weightless while separator is not.

 I am intrigued by this. There are those who believe HR is 
completely
 obsolete /on a semantic level/ because, as we all supposedly know, 
a
 document's semantic structure is divided entirely by headings. I 
would
 like to see if these people have ever swallowed their own medicine 
and

 then developed a site that satisfies anyone.

 Furthermore, surely these people should be horrified at the idea of
 sections and separators?

 Occasionally I get tempted to abide by these bizarre rules and 
create

 my
 heading minefield of a document that will satisfy these monsters 
when
 they switch to the ultimate view-source browsing experience, but 
use a

 display:none class to maintain readability by human beings with an
 existing culture of literature to consider.
 
 Regards,
 Barney


 ***
 List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
 Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
 Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 ***




 ***
 List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
 Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
 Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 ***
The Editor
Heretic Press
http://www.hereticpress.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

The Editor
Heretic Press
http://www.hereticpress.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]



***
List Guidelines: 

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Barney Carroll
Rob, I see where you're coming from - although it becomes easy at times 
like these to mythicise (why isn't that a word?) the benefit of having a 
document that requires no intelligent analysis.


What I believe you're getting at... Is that 'horizontal rule' in itself 
does not 'mean' anything - it is off-putting because it is a tag whose 
name signifies a visual symbol which signifies an abstract value. Far 
better for all of us, I think, to have this replaced by the term 
'separator' - which could be styled to appear as a horizontal rule if 
such is required of the medium the document is rendered in.


The br element is slightly more complex, because 'break' is a more 
useful term. As it happens, the only application of a br is to 
separate objects with a line-break - which is made redundant because it 
is possible to customize just such an effect with the natural separation 
of the two elements it divides. If br could be styled, I would far 
prefer to use that then an hr.


But we're all agreed, I hope, that having an element achieve this effect 
is much desired (even if it might be difficult for a machine to quickly 
interpret its value) - after all, it's long been in semantic use in 
human literature pre-ML. I think we're also all agreed that separation 
is a better name for such a thing.



Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rimantas Liubertas

But we're all agreed, I hope, that having an element achieve this effect
is much desired (even if it might be difficult for a machine to quickly
interpret its value) - after all, it's long been in semantic use in
human literature pre-ML. I think we're also all agreed that separation
is a better name for such a thing.


Separation separates something, but in case of div
id=one/divdiv id=two.../div these divs are already
separated—by being different divs :).
If one wants to make separation more prominent—CSS is to rescue.
I can see some use of HR in no CSS scenario, but this is more in
theory than practice.

Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/

***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Designer

Barney Carroll wrote:


[snip]


What I believe you're getting at... Is that 'horizontal rule' in itself 
does not 'mean' anything - it is off-putting because it is a tag whose 
name signifies a visual symbol which signifies an abstract value. Far 
better for all of us, I think, to have this replaced by the term 
'separator' - which could be styled to appear as a horizontal rule if 
such is required of the medium the document is rendered in.


The br element is slightly more complex, because 'break' is a more 
useful term. As it happens, the only application of a br is to 
separate objects with a line-break - which is made redundant because it 
is possible to customize just such an effect with the natural separation 
of the two elements it divides. If br could be styled, I would far 
prefer to use that then an hr.


But we're all agreed, I hope, that having an element achieve this effect 
is much desired (even if it might be difficult for a machine to quickly 
interpret its value) - after all, it's long been in semantic use in 
human literature pre-ML. I think we're also all agreed that separation 
is a better name for such a thing.



Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***





br/?   hr/? etc.How about p?

What does p actually  mean other than it's presentational attributes?

For example, does:

p Duis lobortis ultricies elit. Nunc et purus vitae risus venenatis 
molestie.
Nullam scelerisque venenatis leo. Quisque sit amet leo at lacus 
rutrum
iaculis. Sed auctor lorem eget nisl. Fusce pulvinar. Nunc 
varius pellentesque

velit. /p
  p Nulla facilisi. Etiam vitae quam. Aliquam eget massa vitae 
pede tristique
luctus. Maecenas iaculis suscipit felis. In lobortis wisi 
rutrum sem.
Maecenas molestie ultricies mi. Mauris sit amet arcu. Aliquam 
erat volutpat.

Praesent ullamcorper. Aenean feugiat erat in quam. /p


'Mean' any more than:

	Duis lobortis ultricies elit. Nunc et purus vitae risus venenatis 
molestie.
Nullam scelerisque venenatis leo. Quisque sit amet leo at lacus 
rutrum
iaculis. Sed auctor lorem eget nisl. Fusce pulvinar. Nunc 
varius pellentesque
velit.  Nulla facilisi. Etiam vitae quam. Aliquam eget massa 
vitae pede tristique
luctus. Maecenas iaculis suscipit felis. In lobortis wisi 
rutrum sem.
Maecenas molestie ultricies mi. Mauris sit amet arcu. Aliquam 
erat volutpat.

Praesent ullamcorper. Aenean feugiat erat in quam. /p



--
Bob

www.gwelanmor-internet.co.uk



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread akella

im using HR's to separate two chapters of text for example. If the second
one has no heading HR is a perfect choice. Making two divs of it ... why
then not make a div for every paragraph? =)
Besides i used to use HR as a clearer(clear:both) for the divs. In this case
it perfectly separates navigation from content for a mobile browsers and for
printers. Thats quite enought for me to use it.

On 2/6/07, Rimantas Liubertas [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


 But we're all agreed, I hope, that having an element achieve this effect
 is much desired (even if it might be difficult for a machine to quickly
 interpret its value) - after all, it's long been in semantic use in
 human literature pre-ML. I think we're also all agreed that separation
 is a better name for such a thing.

Separation separates something, but in case of div
id=one/divdiv id=two.../div these divs are already
separated―by being different divs :).
If one wants to make separation more prominent―CSS is to rescue.
I can see some use of HR in no CSS scenario, but this is more in
theory than practice.

Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/

***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***





--
С уважением и наилучшими пожеланиями,
Юрий akella Артюх


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rimantas Liubertas

im using HR's to separate two chapters of text for example. If the second
one has no heading HR is a perfect choice. Making two divs of it ... why
then not make a div for every paragraph? =)


Because paragraph has got its own element. My point is that there very rarely is
a need for any additional separator in case when elements are already marked up.

div class=chapter
h2Whatever/h2
p.../p
p.../p
...
/div
div class=chapter
h2Whoever/h2
p.../p
p.../p
...
/div

Now you have both chapters marked up. In case of hr you would have
only separator.
Where are the boundaries of the stuff it separates?

Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Tim

Beautifully put Bob, a latin scholar!

span lang=lanon serviam!/span
I will not serve and I will continue using HR tags to visually separate 
content,


Tim

On 06/02/2007, at 11:34 PM, Designer wrote:


Barney Carroll wrote:

[snip]


What I believe you're getting at... Is that 'horizontal rule' in 
itself does not 'mean' anything - it is off-putting because it is a 
tag whose name signifies a visual symbol which signifies an abstract 
value. Far better for all of us, I think, to have this replaced by 
the term 'separator' - which could be styled to appear as a 
horizontal rule if such is required of the medium the document is 
rendered in.
The br element is slightly more complex, because 'break' is a more 
useful term. As it happens, the only application of a br is to 
separate objects with a line-break - which is made redundant because 
it is possible to customize just such an effect with the natural 
separation of the two elements it divides. If br could be styled, I 
would far prefer to use that then an hr.
But we're all agreed, I hope, that having an element achieve this 
effect is much desired (even if it might be difficult for a machine 
to quickly interpret its value) - after all, it's long been in 
semantic use in human literature pre-ML. I think we're also all 
agreed that separation is a better name for such a thing.

Regards,
Barney
***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

br/?   hr/? etc.How about p?

What does p actually  mean other than it's presentational 
attributes?


For example, does:

p Duis lobortis ultricies elit. Nunc et purus vitae risus venenatis 
molestie.
Nullam scelerisque venenatis leo. Quisque sit amet leo at 
lacus rutrum
iaculis. Sed auctor lorem eget nisl. Fusce pulvinar. Nunc 
varius pellentesque

velit. /p
  p Nulla facilisi. Etiam vitae quam. Aliquam eget massa vitae 
pede tristique
luctus. Maecenas iaculis suscipit felis. In lobortis wisi 
rutrum sem.
Maecenas molestie ultricies mi. Mauris sit amet arcu. Aliquam 
erat volutpat.

Praesent ullamcorper. Aenean feugiat erat in quam. /p


'Mean' any more than:

	Duis lobortis ultricies elit. Nunc et purus vitae risus venenatis 
molestie.
Nullam scelerisque venenatis leo. Quisque sit amet leo at 
lacus rutrum
iaculis. Sed auctor lorem eget nisl. Fusce pulvinar. Nunc 
varius pellentesque
velit.  Nulla facilisi. Etiam vitae quam. Aliquam eget massa 
vitae pede tristique
luctus. Maecenas iaculis suscipit felis. In lobortis wisi 
rutrum sem.
Maecenas molestie ultricies mi. Mauris sit amet arcu. Aliquam 
erat volutpat.

Praesent ullamcorper. Aenean feugiat erat in quam. /p



--
Bob

www.gwelanmor-internet.co.uk



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



The Editor
Heretic Press
http://www.hereticpress.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread akella

Sure - if you dont like this tag you could invent 1001 way of not using it.
And im sure they all are right ways.
But just ... why?
I could see all html tags in almost every book. And i consider hr as
something like *** between chapters. It appears in almost every book. And
i dont think that it has something to do with _grouping_ content. I think it
just _separates_. Dont you thinks so?

On 2/6/07, Rimantas Liubertas [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


 im using HR's to separate two chapters of text for example. If the
second
 one has no heading HR is a perfect choice. Making two divs of it ... why
 then not make a div for every paragraph? =)

Because paragraph has got its own element. My point is that there very
rarely is
a need for any additional separator in case when elements are already
marked up.

div class=chapter
h2Whatever/h2
p.../p
p.../p
...
/div
div class=chapter
h2Whoever/h2
p.../p
p.../p
...
/div

Now you have both chapters marked up. In case of hr you would have
only separator.
Where are the boundaries of the stuff it separates?

Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***





--
С уважением и наилучшими пожеланиями,
Юрий akella Артюх

***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Barney Carroll
@Designer:

p separates text into individual blocks. It is used for the same
reason as we use spaces, commas, full-stops (periods), page breaks... A
paragraph should be self-contained in meaning. If you argue that this is
presentational, there's not much stopping you from making the leap to
the fact that text itself is purely a collection of signs which only
mean anything once interpreted on some level. I hope we can leave it at
this without getting into perceptive psychology and the ultimate
meaninglessness of life itself.


@Rimantas:

It only takes imagining any occurrence of a hr to make clear that your
example obviously isn't enough. Of course we don't want one of these
between all divs or ps. No-one has ever used it like this. It is
only because it is used as a distinct element that anyone acknowledges
its value. Horizontal rules do not necessarily divide chapters - and
neither do they divide all paragraphs in any instance I've seen.

You seem to be of the camp which maintains that use of the horizontal
rule as a visual device is never justified. I disagree.


*


If people were to say there should be such a thing as
p.breakFlow:after{display:block;height:1px;color:#00;margin:2em 0 0
2em} on the basis that there should not be such an 'object' in the
markup, I might be tempted to get into a discussion about semiotics. But
saying that a staple of human literary culture over the past 500 years
has been made obsolete by Google doesn't really merit acknowledgment in
my eyes.


Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Designer

Barney Carroll wrote:

@Designer:

p separates text into individual blocks. 


big [snip]


Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***






And that's different to div or span because . . .???

--
Bob

www.gwelanmor-internet.co.uk



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rob Kirton

Bob

Surely...

divIs a collection of html elements which can include p
pIs a collection of sentences
spanIs a selection within a sentence

of course only  p has any semantic meaning, and from this small set of
tags, is the only one of real consequence to search engines and readers
alike.  The others are actually  collections convenient only for  web
designers to apply some form of presentational technique

- Rob


On 06/02/07, Designer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Barney Carroll wrote:
 @Designer:

 p separates text into individual blocks.

big [snip]

 Regards,
 Barney


 ***
 List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
 Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
 Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 ***





And that's different to div or span because . . .???

--
Bob

www.gwelanmor-internet.co.uk



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***





***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Barney Carroll

Designer wrote:
p separates text into individual blocks. 


And that's different to div or span because . . .???


Span is an in-line text divider, most of the time. It can be used to 
highlight all sorts of differences in text significance. Paragraphs are 
block level elements.


A div-level separation usually means you are dealing with a very 
separate piece of text - one that is outside the flow of the rest of the 
document, and often not part of the'document' at all. Moreover it has no 
defined relationship to text - divs are much more free in their use.


As Rob suggests, div and span are far looser in their interpretation 
than ps.



@Akella:

You mention divisions between chapters, Akella, but I am more familiar 
with such devices (the '*' format of horizontal rules in print) 
being used at levels lower than the chapter. In novellas they generally 
signify a distinct break of timeline or protagonist.



Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread akella

@Barney Carroll
you are completely right. Chapter was may be a wrong word. Anyway it has
some separational meaning, and thats what w3c guys were keeping im mind
while inventing it, IMO. There is a *separator* / for that purpose in
XHTML 2.0
w3c:
The 
separatorhttp://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#edef_structural_separatorelement
separates parts of the document from each other.


On 2/6/07, Barney Carroll [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Designer wrote:
 p separates text into individual blocks.

 And that's different to div or span because . . .???

Span is an in-line text divider, most of the time. It can be used to
highlight all sorts of differences in text significance. Paragraphs are
block level elements.

A div-level separation usually means you are dealing with a very
separate piece of text - one that is outside the flow of the rest of the
document, and often not part of the'document' at all. Moreover it has no
defined relationship to text - divs are much more free in their use.

As Rob suggests, div and span are far looser in their interpretation
than ps.


@Akella:

You mention divisions between chapters, Akella, but I am more familiar
with such devices (the '*' format of horizontal rules in print)
being used at levels lower than the chapter. In novellas they generally
signify a distinct break of timeline or protagonist.


Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***





--
С уважением и наилучшими пожеланиями,
Юрий akella Артюх

***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Martin Heiden
Hi!

  From the HTML 4.01 specs:

  The P element represents a paragraph.
  A paragraph is a division of text that semantically belongs
  together.

  The DIV and SPAN elements, in conjunction with the id and class
  attributes, offer a generic mechanism for adding structure to
  documents. These elements define content to be inline (SPAN) or
  block-level (DIV) but impose no other presentational idioms on the
  content. Thus, authors may use these elements in conjunction with
  style sheets, the lang attribute, etc., to tailor HTML to their own
  needs and tastes.
  DIVs and SPANs have no semantic meaning. They can be used to
  divide the HTML document in groups that belong together, like
  navigation, content... The DIV element may contain other block
  elements, Ps may not, they can only contain text and inline elements.

  So P says more than DIV: It's a paragraph.
  
  The HR element causes a horizontal rule to be rendered by visual
  user agents.
  A horizontal rule is a visual divider. It has no semantic meaning,
  but can get some in the context. Like others mentioned it is one of
  the visual HTML elements that might be useful.

  I tend to don't use it though.

regards

  Martin

 





***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Tim
Perhaps for another time and maybe a different group on English 
language Barney, I would like to see a topic on the effect that Google 
is inadvertently having on the English language, apart from linkfarms 
being used to promote selling widgets, repeating keywords in level 
heading and paragraphs, a Thesaurus to me seems like the crucifix to 
the devil for google page rank.


It seems to me that what some people are really concerned about is that 
you cannot stuff keywords into a HR tag?


Can we discuss in this group Google's effect on the English language, 
promoting pagerank for compliance with their search algorithms.


Tim


On 07/02/2007, at 12:10 AM, Barney Carroll wrote:


@Designer:

p separates text into individual blocks. It is used for the same
reason as we use spaces, commas, full-stops (periods), page breaks... A
paragraph should be self-contained in meaning. If you argue that this 
is

presentational, there's not much stopping you from making the leap to
the fact that text itself is purely a collection of signs which only
mean anything once interpreted on some level. I hope we can leave it at
this without getting into perceptive psychology and the ultimate
meaninglessness of life itself.


@Rimantas:

It only takes imagining any occurrence of a hr to make clear that 
your

example obviously isn't enough. Of course we don't want one of these
between all divs or ps. No-one has ever used it like this. It is
only because it is used as a distinct element that anyone acknowledges
its value. Horizontal rules do not necessarily divide chapters - and
neither do they divide all paragraphs in any instance I've seen.

You seem to be of the camp which maintains that use of the horizontal
rule as a visual device is never justified. I disagree.


*


If people were to say there should be such a thing as
p.breakFlow:after{display:block;height:1px;color:#00;margin:2em 0 0
2em} on the basis that there should not be such an 'object' in the
markup, I might be tempted to get into a discussion about semiotics. 
But

saying that a staple of human literary culture over the past 500 years
has been made obsolete by Google doesn't really merit acknowledgment in
my eyes.


Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



The Editor
Heretic Press
http://www.hereticpress.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rimantas Liubertas

@Rimantas:

You seem to be of the camp which maintains that use of the horizontal
rule as a visual device is never justified. I disagree.


I am in a slightly different camp, namely, I agree that there _may be_
the situation when HR is the most appropriate element, but I did not
happen to came across such recently.


Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Barney Carroll

Tim wrote:
Can we discuss in this group Google's effect on the English language, 
promoting pagerank for compliance with their search algorithms.


Tim


I'm pretty sure these people are never actually hired for the 'service' 
of their attitudes to the shape of documents to come, and as such I 
sleep easy at night.


I don't know what has to happen to you for you to browse the web in 
browse-source mode and go Hang on, these nested divs are fine, but 
what's this non-functional empty element between paragraphs? - but I'm 
fairly certain those're a distinct minority compared to the deluded 
masses, who still rely on such outdated things as their experience of 
'human languages', 'deductive reasoning' and 'sensory apparatus' to read 
stuff on the internet.



Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rob Kirton

Tim


On 06/02/07, Tim [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:



It seems to me that what some people are really concerned about is that
you cannot stuff keywords into a HR tag?



That is not the real concern from my perspective, it is simply a fact that
it adds nothing other than a visual effect that can be achieved by other
means in CSS.  Words are everything on the web, without them we have no
content and no meaning, and certainly things are being debased by people who
keyword stuff - one of Barney's original points (display:none) .

IMO, you are right in saying that there is a potential effect on the
language.  There will come a time when the books have been lost and all we
have are web pages (or their equivalent).  If a writing style has been
developed to cater for the frequency of keywords, a certain subtlety to our
language will have been lost.  People might not care to read such articles,
but then again may not be able to find anything other than in that style due
to the working of search engines.

It is a great passion of mine, the fact that we are creating a great pile of
grey goo for our descendants, each day getting a little worse, hence my
absolute fixation with semantics / standards and indeed my very terse style
of mark up, as opposed to style of writing

- Rob

http://ele.vation.co.uk


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

RE: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread michael.brockington
Tim,
As several other people have tried to explain, an HR is always used,  in
printed media, as a separator or divider of some sort.  It may be abused
for visual effect on the web, but in print it always has a semantic
meaning, even if it can be a little subtle and hard to define. Nobody
appear to be arguing that an HR should appear in every document, but
where it is used in the same manner as it is used in print, it cannot
adequately be simulated by CSS, and should not be either or the semantic
meaning would be lost to text-only browsers, etc.
 
I agree that words are important on the web, but they are not
everything, and should not be. I am sure you are aware of Google's
attempts to improve its image categorisation for example, and Video has
ever-increasing importance. Therefore your implication that nothing can
be added to bare words to create meaning is simply ridiculous.
 
Regards,
Mike
 





From: listdad@webstandardsgroup.org
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rob Kirton
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 3:32 PM
To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org
Subject: Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics


Tim



On 06/02/07, Tim [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 


It seems to me that what some people are really
concerned about is that
you cannot stuff keywords into a HR tag?


That is not the real concern from my perspective, it is simply a
fact that it adds nothing other than a visual effect that can be
achieved by other means in CSS.  Words are everything on the web,
without them we have no content and no meaning, and certainly things are
being debased by people who keyword stuff - one of Barney's original
points (display:none) . 




***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***


Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rob Kirton

Mike

Therefore your implication that nothing can be added to bare words to

create meaning is simply ridiculous.

Regards,
Mike




More likely it was me being ridiculous!  I take on board your point about
the importance of images / video, however surely Google 's understanding is
only from the point of view of words we associate with a picture via a
tagging mechanism ?   Therefore words for the bot , rather than words for
the user who in most  cases can see the picture and draw on their own
experiences for a definition of what they see.

If I load a picture this afternoon onto a site, a simple jpeg image, will it
know it is a red car, a red sports car or a red alpha romeo, only
kidding it's actually a picture of a boy flying a kite. I would be
greatly surprised if we *soon* have picture recognition that sophisticated
and having the ability to provide us with a rich set of semantic detail.

- Rob

http://ele.vation.co.uk


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Barney Carroll
The face of standardisation that wants to drag every form of media into 
an indefinitely future-compatible world where everything is stripped 
down to the lowest common denominator of 
systematically-compartmentalised data... Has its place.


But it often takes the romantics to keep it in there. You can't erase 
your ancestry!


We're driving into the same argument that the 'Art and accessibility' 
thread died on - namely that only certain forms of information are 
legitimate on the internet. This is an awful stance to take.


As far as possible, every element of information should be clearly 
labeled and understood even if the rendering device has no use for it... 
But if there is a problem with these ephemeral and hard-to-define 
elements, standardistas should use their sense of order and clear markup 
to help integrate these elements - attempting to remove them is futile, 
if anything it'll just result in them being used or simulated badly.



Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Barney Carroll

Rob Kirton wrote:
More likely it was me being ridiculous!  I take on board your point 
about the importance of images / video, however surely Google 's 
understanding is only from the point of view of words we associate with 
a picture via a tagging mechanism ?   Therefore words for the bot , 
rather than words for the user who in most  cases can see the picture 
and draw on their own experiences for a definition of what they see.


Actually Google is working on face-recognition software. I have long 
been awaiting image search based on a sample image (as opposed to a text 
string)... And this is the first step. Facial recognition is actually 
less complicated because the science of facial features and depth within 
portrait photos are very easily constrained, standardised and computed.


So no, the future isn't just a massive tag field (I bloody hope).


Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rimantas Liubertas

...

But if there is a problem with these ephemeral and hard-to-define
elements, standardistas should use their sense of order and clear markup
to help integrate these elements - attempting to remove them is futile,
if anything it'll just result in them being used or simulated badly.


So, what's so bad with separators simulated with CSS.
Con: you won't have them with CSS off.
Pro: cleaner code, more flexibility.
(http://rimantas.com/bits/hr/nohr.html was a quick example I made in
May 2005, when similar discussion is going on some of w3 mailing
list).

I doubt that anybody is arguing against the visual separator per se.
The way it comes to life is another matter.

Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Tim
Therefore your implication that nothing can be added to bare words to 
create meaning is simply ridiculous


I never said that Mike check the posts or get it right when you say 
someone is  being ridiculous. What are you talking about? I don't even 
understand the implication, it is ridiculous and I never said that at 
all so don't misquote me and try to imply that several others have 
tried to tell me something, I can see who is being ridiculous.


Tim

On 07/02/2007, at 3:16 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Tim,
As several other people have tried to explain, an HR is always used,  
in printed media, as a separator or divider of some sort.  It may be 
abused for visual effect on the web, but in print it always has a 
semantic meaning, even if it can be a little subtle and hard to 
define. Nobody appear to be arguing that an HR should appear in every 
document, but where it is used in the same manner as it is used in 
print, it cannot adequately be simulated by CSS, and should not be 
either or the semantic meaning would be lost to text-only browsers, 
etc.

 
I agree that words are important on the web, but they are not 
everything, and should not be. I am sure you are aware of Google's 
attempts to improve its image categorisation for example, and Video 
has ever-increasing importance. Therefore your implication that 
nothing can be added to bare words to create meaning is simply 
ridiculous.

 
Regards,
Mike
 

From: listdad@webstandardsgroup.org 
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rob Kirton

Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 3:32 PM
To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org
Subject: Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

Tim


On 06/02/07, Tim [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
It seems to me that what some people are really concerned about is 
that

you cannot stuff keywords into a HR tag?
That is not the real concern from my perspective, it is simply a fact 
that it adds nothing other than a visual effect that can be achieved 
by other means in CSS.  Words are everything on the web, without them 
we have no content and no meaning, and certainly things are being 
debased by people who keyword stuff - one of Barney's original points 
(display:none) .


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

The Editor
Heretic Press
http://www.hereticpress.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rob Kirton

Barney



So no, the future isn't just a massive tag field (I bloody hope).



I hope so too.

I just don't thing it will be coming any time soon.  Hence my thing about
words and tags

They've had difficulties with disambiguation of words in one language, I
suspect pictures will prove to be very difficult.  To quote your example,
remember they've not only got to identify it is a face, but also identify it
as being you or me !!!  I've just looked to the right hand panel of my Gmail
client and found an ad for LED belt buckles there (along with 2 for face
recognition software), as a result of your last message :0)

--
Regards

- Rob

Raising web standards : http://ele.vation.co.uk
Linking in with others   : http://linkedin.com/in/robkirton


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

RE: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread John Foliot
Rimantas Liubertas wrote:
 ...
 But if there is a problem with these ephemeral and hard-to-define
 elements, standardistas should use their sense of order and clear
 markup to help integrate these elements - attempting to remove them
 is futile, if anything it'll just result in them being used or
 simulated badly.
 
 So, what's so bad with separators simulated with CSS.
 Con: you won't have them with CSS off.
 Pro: cleaner code, more flexibility.
 (http://rimantas.com/bits/hr/nohr.html was a quick example I made in
 May 2005, when similar discussion is going on some of w3 mailing
 list).   
 
 I doubt that anybody is arguing against the visual separator per se.
 The way it comes to life is another matter. 
 
 Regards,
 Rimantas

You are completely missing the point.  It needs to be *MORE* than just
visual for Accessibility reasons.  While an hr / may not have any true
semantic meaning (in a strict sense), it is structural none-the-less; it
indicates a clean break between what proceeds it and what follows it.  This
concept is not hard to understand - it is neither ephemeral nor
hard-to-define.  However, it renders horribly in today's ultra-cool graphic
interface designs, and so designers/developers shun it.

And so the way it comes to life *is* important - it should be integral to
the source code.  The way it visually renders... Now that's where there is
room for improvement.

Just another perspective and $0.002 worth of opinion

JF




***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rimantas Liubertas

You are completely missing the point.  It needs to be *MORE* than just
visual for Accessibility reasons.  While an hr / may not have any true
semantic meaning (in a strict sense), it is structural none-the-less; it
indicates a clean break between what proceeds it and what follows it.  This
concept is not hard to understand - it is neither ephemeral nor
hard-to-define.  However, it renders horribly in today's ultra-cool graphic
interface designs, and so designers/developers shun it.


Very interesting and very unconvincing. For one, HR can be styled, so not
too much problem for today's ultra-cool graphic interface.
As for Accessibility I am really interested how HR helps it, and how
it is rendered
in non visual browsers, and is this the best way of doing it.


And so the way it comes to life *is* important - it should be integral to
the source code.  The way it visually renders... Now that's where there is
room for improvement.


Ok, how about this improvement - give the section which must be
separated from the
previous one some meaningful header, but hide it with CSS, rendering
only visual separator, like line, three stars, whatever.

Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rob Kirton

I am with Rimintas on this one.  I don't think we'll all agree this.


From where i am sitting a div causes a nice logical break as much as hr

(without needing to use one) and the top / or bottom border can be styled to
appear like a horizontal rule if required. div constructs are sometimes a
lazy mechanism, and In some circumstances I'd probably be more inclined to
style a class of p.  If I wanted to view a page without any styling at
all, I wouldn't particularly want to see a break appear across the page;
though I do accept the counter argument to this in the un-styled case.

- Rob


On 06/02/07, John Foliot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Rimantas Liubertas wrote:
 ...
 But if there is a problem with these ephemeral and hard-to-define
 elements, standardistas should use their sense of order and clear
 markup to help integrate these elements - attempting to remove them
 is futile, if anything it'll just result in them being used or
 simulated badly.

 So, what's so bad with separators simulated with CSS.
 Con: you won't have them with CSS off.
 Pro: cleaner code, more flexibility.
 (http://rimantas.com/bits/hr/nohr.html was a quick example I made in
 May 2005, when similar discussion is going on some of w3 mailing
 list).

 I doubt that anybody is arguing against the visual separator per se.
 The way it comes to life is another matter.

 Regards,
 Rimantas

You are completely missing the point.  It needs to be *MORE* than just
visual for Accessibility reasons.  While an hr / may not have any true
semantic meaning (in a strict sense), it is structural none-the-less; it
indicates a clean break between what proceeds it and what follows
it.  This
concept is not hard to understand - it is neither ephemeral nor
hard-to-define.  However, it renders horribly in today's ultra-cool
graphic
interface designs, and so designers/developers shun it.

And so the way it comes to life *is* important - it should be integral
to
the source code.  The way it visually renders... Now that's where there is
room for improvement.

Just another perspective and $0.002 worth of opinion

JF




***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***





***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Barney Carroll

John Foliot wrote:

You are completely missing the point.  It needs to be *MORE* than just

visual for Accessibility reasons.  While an hr / may not have any true
semantic meaning (in a strict sense), it is structural none-the-less; it
indicates a clean break between what proceeds it and what follows it.  This
concept is not hard to understand - it is neither ephemeral nor
hard-to-define.  However, it renders horribly in today's ultra-cool graphic
interface designs, and so designers/developers shun it.


I agree completely. I like your example, Rimantas, but there is indeed 
meaning there, which is more than simply 'presentational' (unless you 
define 'presentational' as whatever isn't fully digestible by your PDA).


Maybe you'd chose to answer this with an audio and braille stylesheet 
containing p.s1:after{content:[separation]}... But I actually believe 
all of this is way too convoluted a way of compensating for the fact 
that something very simple is missing.


Besides, the separation does not occur within the pounds of that 
paragraph. If the paragraph before or after the separation were to be 
deleted, there is no immediate reason for the separation to disappear - 
it is an object in its own right and deserves independence.



Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Barney Carroll

Rob Kirton wrote:

I am with Rimintas on this one.  I don't think we'll all agree this.

 From where i am sitting a div causes a nice logical break as much as 
hr (without needing to use one) and the top / or bottom border can be 
styled to appear like a horizontal rule if required. div constructs 
are sometimes a lazy mechanism, and In some circumstances I'd probably 
be more inclined to style a class of p.  If I wanted to view a page 
without any styling at all, I wouldn't particularly want to see a break 
appear across the page; though I do accept the counter argument to this 
in the un-styled case.


div class=separate-from-next
 pBlah blah blah/p
 pBlah blah blah/p
 pBlah blah blah/p
/div
!-- would-be separator --
div class=separate-from-previous
 pBlah blah blah/p
/div

Something like this, Rob?

The thing is... When you say you don't particularly want to see page 
breaks if you're viewing a document unstyled... Are there any other 
breaks you would like to avoid? Perhaps a matter for custom CSS for 
those elements is more what you're after.



Regards,
Barney


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Andrew Maben

John Foliot wrote:


Rimantas Liubertas wrote:


Very interesting and very unconvincing. For one, HR can be styled, so
not too much problem for today's ultra-cool graphic interface. As for
Accessibility I am really interested how HR helps it, and how it is
rendered in non visual browsers, and is this the best way of doing
it.


Last time I checked (and it *was* a while ago), styling the hr /  
is not
that satisfying an experience - as I recall it required a fair bit  
of junk
code to render satisfactory design aesthetics - but I can be  
corrected
here if I am wrong.  But you have hit on a key point - non-visual  
browsers.


Since the hr / *is* a page element, it is announced and rendered  
as such -
it is a Horizontal Rule - or break, in just about every user-agent  
known to
mankind; it is one of the most basic of HTML constructs.  There is  
a reason
*why* you as a page author/content creator wants that line/ 
division/break
on screen - I mean it's not just there on a whim is it?  And so,  
ensuring
that the intent carries through to alternative user-agents is a  
goal of
Universal Accessibility.  We have the HTML tool to do this - the  
hr / -
yes, it's ugly, yes' it's limiting, but, yes, it has more *meaning*  
than

img src=linebreak.gif alt= /.




Ok, how about this improvement - give the section which must be
separated from the previous one some meaningful header, but hide it
with CSS, rendering only visual separator, like line, three stars,
whatever.


If inserting a meaningful Heading at that point in you content is
appropriate, then this is good (but why would you hide it from  
some, and not
others?  Would not the meaningful header also be of aid/assistance  
to those

with cognitive load issues, those with lower comprehension or literacy
skills - perhaps ESL?).  However, again, I will ask: if you are  
using the
image to convey *any* kind of meaning what-so-ever, how are you  
conveying

this meaning to alternative user-agents.  It also means you must ask
yourself if there *is* a meaning to the break image (I submit that  
there
probably is) or is it really just eye-candy.  If it is being used  
at the

bottom of a page/document then the argument for eye-candy would find
credence - if it is inserted into the middle of your content then  
that

would be a harder argument to make.

**
Meanwhile, Rob Kirton wrote:
From where i am sitting a div causes a nice logical break as  
much as
hr (without needing to use one) and the top / or bottom border  
can be

styled to appear like a horizontal rule if required.


Except Rob, Adaptive Technology does not explicitly announce  
divs, as
while they add structure, they have no inherent semantic  meaning,  
which the

hr / does.  You may be able to style your div to visually render
separation of content, but that visual rendering does not carry  
through to

non-visual browsers:

  div.top {border-bottom: 1px red dotted;}

...means absolutely nothing to a screen reader.

And so again, my question/challenge remains - if you are adding a  
visual
information clue to your content how are you extending that  
information to

non-visual user agents?

JF





***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***


Hooray! I've been watching this with my jaw hanging ever closer to  
the ground...


To sum up:
div and span have NO semantic meaning and are transparent to  
screen readers and (sans style) invisible in common browsers


while h*, p and hr all DO have semantic meanings:
h* indicates a new section which has a name/title and whose  
importance is variable within the context of the document.

p is a paragraph
hr indicates the end of a section and/or beginning of a new section  
with no name/title
In common browsers these are visually differentiated in their various  
ways, and most (all?) human readers are so used to these visual  
conventions that they absorb the semantic weight intuitively.  
Meanwhile screen readers provide meaningful descriptions.


CSS can then play with the style of the presentation - but the choice  
of style has nothing to do with semantics. Which I thought was  
supposed to be the point.


br anyone?

Andrew

109b SE 4th Av
Gainesville
FL 32601

Cell: 352-870-6661

http://www.andrewmaben.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

In a well designed user interface, the user should not need  
instructions.





***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rimantas Liubertas

...

Since the hr / *is* a page element, it is announced and rendered as such -
it is a Horizontal Rule - or break, in just about every user-agent known to
mankind; it is one of the most basic of HTML constructs.  There is a reason
*why* you as a page author/content creator wants that line/division/break
on screen - I mean it's not just there on a whim is it?


Thats my point: there must be the reason for such separation and I don't think
that Horizontal Rule be it visual or aural.


 And so, ensuring
that the intent carries through to alternative user-agents is a goal of
Universal Accessibility.  We have the HTML tool to do this - the hr / -
yes, it's ugly, yes' it's limiting, but, yes, it has more *meaning* than
img src=linebreak.gif alt= /.


Ok, let's take img src=linebreak.gif alt=Horizontal rule /.
In visual media it will be horizontal rule, aural browser will
announce it as image: horizontal rule. Is it any worse than just
Horizontal rule?


If inserting a meaningful Heading at that point in you content is
appropriate, then this is good (but why would you hide it from some, and not
others?  Would not the meaningful header also be of aid/assistance to those
with cognitive load issues, those with lower comprehension or literacy
skills - perhaps ESL?).


Exactly. If separation is indeed that meaningful why not to use
something more meaningful to announce it?



 However, again, I will ask: if you are using the
image to convey *any* kind of meaning what-so-ever, how are you conveying
this meaning to alternative user-agents.  It also means you must ask
yourself if there *is* a meaning to the break image (I submit that there
probably is) or is it really just eye-candy.

...

I still see HR as eye-candy or ear-candy. Ok, let's say you are
reading the book for someone, and encounter the separator. What would
you do? Say three stars follow,
horizontal line follows, or just make a longer pause?

So, if following section deserves own header - give it, if not -
render longer pause in aural version, and some eye candy for visual
media with CSS. If aural browser does not support
pause-before properly: too bad.
...


Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rimantas Liubertas

 Hooray! I've been watching this with my jaw hanging ever closer to the
ground...

To sum up:
div and span have NO semantic meaning and are transparent to screen
readers and (sans style) invisible in common browsers



hr indicates the end of a section and/or beginning of a new section with
no name/title


And div still does not indicate anything? Shall we stick a HR just
to know where section
begins and ends?

The DIV and SPAN elements, in conjunction with the id and class
attributes, offer a generic mechanism for adding structure to
documents. These elements define content to be inline (SPAN) or
block-level (DIV) but impose no other presentational idioms on the
content. Thus, authors may use these elements in conjunction with
style sheets, the lang attribute, etc., to tailor HTML to their own
needs and tastes.


Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread akella


So, if following section deserves own header - give it, if not -
render longer pause in aural version, and some eye candy for visual
media with CSS. If aural browser does not support
pause-before properly: too bad.



I think pause is just what screen readers would do at hr / - so why not
use it for its purpose?

So let's tomorrow discuss do we really need that weird non semantic br /.
Or we can just stick with span and span{display:block} ? =)
I think we still need br and hr. They are similar in a lot of ways.

--
С уважением и наилучшими пожеланиями,
Юрий akella Артюх

***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rimantas Liubertas

I think pause is just what screen readers would do at hr / - so why not
use it for its purpose?


Because we can style the div/whatever that would come after HR the
same way–to render
pause and that makes HR redundant, imho.


So let's tomorrow discuss do we really need that weird non semantic br /.
Or we can just stick with span and span{display:block} ? =)
I think we still need br and hr. They are similar in a lot of ways.


BR is tougher, I haven't made my mind about it yet :)
But for tomorrow I'll try my best to avoid discussing semantics
altogether, this
is not as bad as fluid vs. fixed or font-size, but it is close ;)


Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/

***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rob Kirton

John

Thanks for the thought provoking contribution..



Except Rob, Adaptive Technology does not explicitly announce divs, as
while they add structure, they have no inherent semantic  meaning, which
the
hr / does.  You may be able to style your div to visually render
separation of content, but that visual rendering does not carry through to
non-visual browsers:

  div.top {border-bottom: 1px red dotted;}

...means absolutely nothing to a screen reader.

And so again, my question/challenge remains - if you are adding a visual
information clue to your content how are you extending that information to
non-visual user agents?

JF



I must confess that I was working from the assumption that the horizontal
rule was in-fact eye candy, the purpose of which is to rest the eye by
forcing a small break.  Not using hr myself [ I think this is where I
first came in :0) ], I have never tested this against a screen reader.  We
now get down to usability issues for adaptive technology instead of the
boring old accessibility ones, that every body should know about.  Would a
screen reader  user prefer to have it read out that there was a horizontal
line  (if they even have the concept what that is), or would they prefer to
just get on with the show and have the next paragraph or heading read to
them?

If it is announced as a break, and it is a suitable place to pause, to
prevent information overload, maybe it is a good idea.

I am a great believer that, If any images or spaces are just eye candy and
impart no real information, they should not be read out to screen reader
users, thank goodness for CSS.

- Rob

Raising web standards : http://ele.vation.co.uk
Linking in with others   : http://linkedin.com/in/robkirton


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***

RE: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread John Foliot
Rimantas Liubertas wrote:
 
 Thats my point: there must be the reason for such separation and I
 don't think that Horizontal Rule be it visual or aural. 

Yet if you insert a visual separator into your document, there *is* a
reason.  There are as many reasons *for* doing this as for *not doing* this.
And to discuss use-cases would drive this thread into the ground.  I
maintain that as a visual author/designer, if you are adding a visual
separator to a document you must be doing it for a reason, and I ask again,
how are you conveying that information to the non-visual user-agent?

 
 Ok, let's take img src=linebreak.gif alt=Horizontal rule /. In
 visual media it will be horizontal rule, aural browser will announce
 it as image: horizontal rule. Is it any worse than just Horizontal
 rule? 

First, move beyond screen reading technology - web accessibility is way more
than web pages for the blind. Your suggestion of using an image with the alt
text of Horizontal rule is bordering on silly.  It harkens back to the
days of img src=spacer.gif alt=*... And how many times have we
encountered that in the past.  It is a strange suggestion for a list that is
supposed to be about Web Standards.

You want a visually rich method of supplying a delimitating separator - we
get that.  In the interest of accessibility, how do you extend that meaning
- as I again argue there *is* a meaning implied for it to be on your
visually rendered page.
  
 
 If inserting a meaningful Heading at that point in you content is
 appropriate, then this is good (but why would you hide it from some,
 and not others?  Would not the meaningful header also be of
 aid/assistance to those with cognitive load issues, those with lower
 comprehension or literacy skills - perhaps ESL?).
 
 Exactly. If separation is indeed that meaningful why not to use
 something more meaningful to announce it? 

Perhaps because not all separation is of that significance - yet it (your
rule, or stars, or image) is there visually, so there must be *some* reason
for it.  I am not saying that it is the final solution, far from it, and I
do not disagree that using h_ elements are an appropriate method of
signifying section breaks, but again, there are times when that is or may
not be appropriate.  Refer to use-case note above.

 
 I still see HR as eye-candy or ear-candy. Ok, let's say you are
 reading the book for someone, and encounter the separator. What would
 you do? Say three stars follow, horizontal line follows, or just
 make a longer pause?   

Generally, that question must be taken in context.  Of course I would not
say three stars or horizontal rule follows, but I might pause, I might
stop off (to resume later), or choose another action (for example, to
discuss the preceding section with the listener before resuming).  The point
here is: That visual separator indicated that there was a break.  Full stop.
To fail to acknowledge this is simply being contrary, and not really adding
anything to the discussion.

 
 So, if following section deserves own header - give it, if not -
 render longer pause in aural version, and some eye candy for visual
 media with CSS. If aural browser does not support pause-before
 properly: too bad. ...   

Hey, if I could find *ONE* commercially available screen reading technology
that supported aural style sheets, then I would agree that *sometimes* this
would be the way to go.  Please name me one (just one) technology that
supports aural CSS.

JF




***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Rimantas Liubertas

 Ok, let's take img src=linebreak.gif alt=Horizontal rule /. In
 visual media it will be horizontal rule, aural browser will announce
 it as image: horizontal rule. Is it any worse than just Horizontal
 rule?

First, move beyond screen reading technology - web accessibility is way more
than web pages for the blind.


Believe or not, I am aware of it.


Your suggestion of using an image with the alt
text of Horizontal rule is bordering on silly.  It harkens back to the
days of img src=spacer.gif alt=*... And how many times have we
encountered that in the past.  It is a strange suggestion for a list that is
supposed to be about Web Standards.


If was not my suggestion. I just wanted to say, that hr is not that
better than img 
Sorry if my English is too bad to make it clear.



You want a visually rich method of supplying a delimitating separator - we
get that.  In the interest of accessibility, how do you extend that meaning
- as I again argue there *is* a meaning implied for it to be on your
visually rendered page.


If I want that - I get it with CSS, styling one of the sections that
are supposed to be
separated. In this case HR is simply redundant in my eyes.



 The point
here is: That visual separator indicated that there was a break.  Full stop.
To fail to acknowledge this is simply being contrary, and not really adding
anything to the discussion.


No. I'd say it this way: there was a break which was made visual by
using separator.
That is - it is break, shift in thought, whatever that comes first.
Visual/aural representation
of it comes second. Since I believe CSS is capable of rendering this
visual representation,
I maintain the point that HR is redundant.


Hey, if I could find *ONE* commercially available screen reading technology
that supported aural style sheets, then I would agree that *sometimes* this
would be the way to go.  Please name me one (just one) technology that
supports aural CSS.


http://dotjay.co.uk/tests/css/aural-speech/ - so we must wait for the
results of JAWS test
to show up.

In any case, I still think that even with the lack of support for the
aural CSS there are better ways
to indicate break/separation than saying Horizontal rule. It just
does not sound right to me (pun intended).

Thanks for your thoughts, but I am out of this discussion :)

Regards,
Rimantas
--
http://rimantas.com/


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



RE: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread John Foliot
Rob Kirton wrote:
 
 We now get down to usability issues for
 adaptive technology instead of the boring old accessibility ones,
 that every body should know about.  Would a screen reader  user
 prefer to have it read out that there was a horizontal line  (if they
 even have the concept what that is), or would they prefer to just get
 on with the show and have the next paragraph or heading read to them?

Well Rob, I'm not a huge fan of developing for technology - I prefer to
develop to standards.  However, yours is a good question.  I'm not a daily
user of Adaptive Technology, but I queried my buddy James (who *is* a daily
user and trainer) about the hr / element, and the answer is, well,
strange.

First of all, this applies to JAWS, Window Eyes, and HomePageReader (and
because of JAWS, by extension Connect Outloud), however this is not to be
considered 'definitive', but merely what I can report.  I cannot comment on
how the Mac VoicOver technology works with Safari, but I know that then next
gen Mac OS will take the screen reading to a next level (or so said the Mac
evangelist/sales rep I saw do a presentation).  Roger Johansson gives some
feedback on the initial version of VoiceOver on his site
[http://tinyurl.com/an2o3], but says nothing about the hr /.  I cannot
comment on other screen reading technology (such as found in Linux builds)
either - but they *may* behave differently. (If anyone else can shed some
light here, please speak up)

Screen reader users will digest web content in different ways, as will
most users.  If the user allows the page to load and start reading from top
to bottom, then surprisingly the hr / *is not* announced to the user.
This is not affected by any user-setting that James was aware of, and it
works the same way with the major screen readers discussed.  However, if the
user starts to arrow down, i.e. to scan through paragraphs (arrow down
skips to the beginning of the next paragraph) and it encounters a Horizontal
rule it will pause.  You need to arrow down again to get to the next
paragraph.

[John] Normally, do you allow a page to read full out, or do you arrow down
from paragraph to paragraph?

[James] Depends on what I want to accomplish.  If it's a page that I know
I'm looking for specific information I'll skim it but if it's something like
a news article or book i let it read in full.

[John] How do you know if there is more content after the pause?  Is there
any way that you are advised that there is more content after that pause?

[James] It is common knowledge that you should continue to arrow down until
you hear the same paragraph repeated twice.

(I then made a joke with James about common knowledge...)

So... Now you (we) have an idea of how the element is digested today.  Text
only browsers will visually render the hr / in the traditional sense, and
for small screen browsers, the hr / will scale to the width of the
viewport, unlike images (if we need yet more arguments for the hr /)

 
 If it is announced as a break, and it is a suitable place to pause,
 to prevent information overload, maybe it is a good idea. 
 
 I am a great believer that, If any images or spaces are just eye
 candy and impart no real information, they should not be read out to
 screen reader users, thank goodness for CSS.  

Well, I don't disagree, however, given what we now know, is the pausing
deliberate, is it necessary?  Why doesn't it pause all of the time?  Should
it?  These are questions for the screen reader developers, I cannot answer,
although I am surprised by the current inconsistency of the output.

Given my fanaticism for Standards however, I will still argue that the *most
appropriate* tool for separating two sections of content on the same page is
the HTML based hr /, and I will cite no less than the W3C/WAI: 

WCAG 1 Priority 2-3.1 When an appropriate markup language exists,
use markup rather than images to convey information.

Cheers!

JF





***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Ben Buchanan

So, what's so bad with separators simulated with CSS.
Con: you won't have them with CSS off.
Pro: cleaner code, more flexibility.
(http://rimantas.com/bits/hr/nohr.html was a quick example I made in
May 2005, when similar discussion is going on some of w3 mailing
list).


For me the con outweighs the pro; and your example actually
demonstrates why I think HR is useful.

Your example shows a page with clearly separate items of information -
the design is giving  unmissable cues that each paragraph is separated
from the others. As such, your document's structure is reliant on the
separator images to convey the correct meaning from the page. The
integrity of the page's communication relies on the reader
understanding that the three paragraphs are separated.

Without CSS, you lose the separators. Your example embeds a key part
of the communication in the CSS. The page should communicate the same
thing with no CSS; and simply do it in a more pretty manner when CSS
is applied.

Separators do have semantic meaning, so when they occur we should use
HR. It's just a pity the element is named according to how it is
rendered, since that muddles things :) separator is a much better
name for the element.

For whatever another 2c is worth in this thread ;)

cheers,

Ben

--
--- http://weblog.200ok.com.au/
--- The future has arrived; it's just not
--- evenly distributed. - William Gibson


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-06 Thread Dan Dorman

On 2/6/07, Ben Buchanan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

For whatever another 2c is worth in this thread ;)


Actually, Ben, that's the 2c that convinced me that hr /s do have a
raison d'etre. The tag truly is unfortunately named, though.

Dan


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-05 Thread Tim

I love HRs,

I use seven different stylesheets and have a different background image 
for each HR which is a very wide thin tiling pattern. Then you can have 
different HRs for each style. I also use them to ensure clear breaks on 
both sides. Explorer does not seem to support the background image in 
HR , but it looks great in everything else.


HR.No1menuHR{display:block;height:6px;color:#FFCC66;margin-top: 
20px;margin-bottom: 20px;background-image: 
url(Logos/ABlackLine.jpg);}


HR.No1menuHR{display:block;height:6px;color:#FFCC66;margin-top: 
18px;margin-bottom: 18px;background-image: 
url(../Logos/AHorizrule.jpg);clear: both;}


I put new headings after the HR

Tim

On 06/02/2007, at 1:50 PM, 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]
***



The Editor
Heretic Press
http://www.hereticpress.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]



***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-05 Thread Christian Montoya

On 2/5/07, Andrew Ingram [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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 think hr doesn't possess much for semantics. I never use them at
all. I know new ideas have been proposed for future versions of
(x)HTML, and one example would be XHTML 2 which has sections to
separate parts of a page. That offers a lot more for semantics than
just having hrs strewn about.

--
--
Christian Montoya
christianmontoya.net .. designtocss.com


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-05 Thread Kat

Christian Montoya wrote:

On 2/5/07, Andrew Ingram [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


 one example would be XHTML 2 which has sections to

separate parts of a page. That offers a lot more for semantics than
just having hrs strewn about.


What is the difference between the new section and a div ?

Kat




***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-05 Thread liorean

On 06/02/07, Kat [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

What is the difference between the new section and a div ?


Sections are typographical sections, divs are for adding extra
structure. You can see divs as fuzzy semantically distinct content
areas and sections as a textual semantical grouping.

uri:http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#sec_8.8.
uri:http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#sec_8.4.



Also IIRC the hr is just renamed to separator in XHTML2, it doesn't go
away entirely.

uri:http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#sec_8.9.
--
David liorean Andersson


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***



Re: [WSG] HR tag and Semantics

2007-02-05 Thread Christian Montoya

On 2/5/07, Kat [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Christian Montoya wrote:
 On 2/5/07, Andrew Ingram [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  one example would be XHTML 2 which has sections to
 separate parts of a page. That offers a lot more for semantics than
 just having hrs strewn about.

What is the difference between the new section and a div ?


The section actually carries semantic weight, and is meant to be
used carefully... the div does not.

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#edef_structural_section

Then again, XHTML 2 does have a separator element which is just like hr...

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#edef_structural_separator

But you will notice that XHTML 2 has both div and section, and
div is weightless while separator is not.


--
--
Christian Montoya
christianmontoya.net .. designtocss.com


***
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***