Here are some various potential use cases for <dialog> I've collected
and which I think are problematic with the way the <dialog> element
is currently defined.
Regular dialogue:
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2007/03/26/070326sh_shouts_rich
IRC Logs:
http://www.linode.com/irc/logs/linode-xenbeta.log-2006-03-26
Screenplay (not a dialogue in itself, but contains a couple of them):
http://www.lynchnet.com/mdrive/mdscript.html
- - -
Adding specific elements for all these use cases is probably not
going to be a good idea since there are too many of them. But I think
allowing regular paragraphs in the content of <dialog> would be
useful in a couple of cases. This is an excerpt from the first linked
page formatted this way:
<dialog>
<dt>FRIEND FROM WORK:</dt>
<dd>I am the loudest! I am the loudest!</dd>
<p>(Everybody laughs.)</p>
<dt>MOM:</dt>
<dd>I had a lot of wine, and now I’m crazy!</dd>
</dialog>
Formatted excerpt from second link (an IRC log):
<dialog>
<p><time>21:57</time></p>
<dt>caker</dt>
<dd>sweet</dd>
<p><time>21:57</time></p>
<dt>caker</dt>
<dd>it worked</dd>
<p><time>21:57</time></p>
<p class="action">caker closes out last bug</p>
<p><time>22:04</time></p>
<dt>encode</dt>
<dd>yay!</dd>
<dialog>
These to examples are non-conformant according to the current spec. I
won't say this is the ideal markup, but I think it's still better
than opening and closing a dialog element each time you need a <p>
element. Any better way to markup these?
Michel Fortin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.michelf.com/
