Bert Doorn wrote:
Just to clarify my point. I did not mean to ask whether it is "possible" to
call a list of one item a list. More a question of "why would you call it a
list" and in HTML terms, why use the extra element. If we take this
further, we might as well make every section in a html document (heading and
paragraphs below it) a definition list and forget about headings and
paragraphs. In fact, why not just make everything a div, span or object, so
it all becomes very generic. (No, I'm not advocating that approach)
sometimes a list is just a list! You would call a list of one item a
list if you would call the same group and structure of words a list if
it contained more than one item. See, even the act of assuming it's an
"item" gives credence to it being a list.
So many ways of grouping related items are correct, and without
further information on the differences we're just guessing. By
all means though if one looks better or suits a personal
preference then just use it, but it's not like we can draw any
best practices from this.
Sure, it's personal preference, just like using tables nested n levels deep,
often replacing a single paragraph with a complex table (no, I don't
advocate that either). I'm sure we've all seen examples of this (ab)use of
tables. Are definition lists in danger of replacing tables for layout?
well, possibly they are - see Terry's earlier post. But even if they are, it in no way means that *in every situation* it's personal preference as to what is semantically best. That's what's called a "slippery slope" argument - just because you can find some examples where things aren't clear-cut, doesn't mean every case isn't clear cut. Again, sometimes a list is a list and a list is the right thing.
Regards
Mike Brown
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