>From this description, it seems like the <section/> element has little use. If
>you're talking about writing articles, most authors consider the start and end
>of sections as implicitly defined by headings. Making this explicit seems
>unnecessary so long as headings are still available and used. It's just extra
>syntax to represent something that is more easily represented without it.
-Nicholas
----- Original Message ----
From: Tab Atkins Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: whatwg List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 10:24:49 AM
Subject: Re: [whatwg] The div element
On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 11:39 AM, Nicholas Zakas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I don't think it's as clear as you make it out to be. A "section" and a
"division". I hate to consult a dictionary on this, but one definition for
"section" is "subdivision". The naming alone does not make it clear what the
difference is. The <nav/>, <header/>, and <footer/> elements are pretty clear
as to their usage.
Some additional language might be good for clarifying. Optionally, got any
better suggestions for the element's name?
Anne mentioned that <section/> interacts with <h1/>-<h6/>...how so?
In HTML5, the <hx> hierarchy is explicitly ignored. Instead, they're all
treated the same. The actual heading level is determined by <section> nesting.
If <section/> is something people believe in, then there really has to be more
definition around it and its difference with <div/>. I know part of HTML 5 is
to mitigate the div-itis problem, but without clearer distinctions you'll just
end up with a mishmash of <section/> and <div/> being used interchangeably.
Okay, let's make sure it's clear. <section> has a pretty anemic description in
the spec currently.
To the best of my knowledge, the basic use case of <section> is dividing up
related content within an <article>. This is pretty easy to use correctly.
Question to others: I think it is somewhat unclear what exactly the correct
semantics are for <section> when it is encountered outside of an <article>.
Since <section> is the most generic of the sectioning tags, there is a definite
risk of it falling into the same hole that <div> is in. Where exactly should
<section> be used when outside of an article, and when should we just default
to the <div>?
~TJ
____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ
