Hi Patrick,
The following is take from:
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/xhtml2.html
Before somebody smart in this list points out that this document is a working
draft, let me say that (1) there are other sources that say the same thing - I
don't have time to hunt for them right now and (2) I am only referring to
sections that talk about the past or have not changed and (3) this document is
more descriptive than other sources.
[quote:]
Separators: in previous versions of HTML, the hr element was used to separate
sections of a text from each other. In retrospect, the name hr (for horizontal
rule) was badly chosen, because an hr was neither necessarily horizontal (in
vertical text it was vertical), nor necessarily a rule (books often use other
typographical methods to represent separators, such as a line of three
asterisks, and stylesheets can be used to give you this freedom). In order to
emphasize its structuring nature, and to make it clearer that it has no
essential directionality, hr has been renamed separator.
[/quote]
[quote]
For visual user agents this element [<sup>] would normally be rendered as a
super-script of the text baseline, but on user agents where this is not
possible (for instance teletype-like devices) other renderings may be used. For
instance, 2<sup>n</sup> that would be rendered as 2n on a device that can
render it so, might be rendered as 2↑(n) on a simpler device.
Many scripts (e.g., French) require superscripts or subscripts for proper
rendering. The sub and sup elements should be used to markup text in these
cases.
Examples:
E = mc<sup>2</sup>
<span xml:lang="fr">M<sup>lle</sup> Dupont</span>
[/quote]
Regards,
-Vlad
http://xstandard.com
Patrick Lauke wrote:
>>Vlad Alexander (XStandard)
>
>
>><sub> and <sup> are not presentational.
>
>
> I beg to differ...they are entirely visual.
>
>
>>There is a valid need
>>for superscript and subscript in markup. For example:
>>
>>E = mc<sup>2</sup>
>
>
> Again, that's visual markup. It doesn't say "M C squared",
> but "M C and then a 2 that lives a little higher up than
> the rest of the text". HTML was never meant to mark up
> mathematical expressions...that's what MathML is for.
> I've seen <sup> used for referencing footnotes as well...
> so you see it's not that <sup> has
> semantic value, but it's purely describing the visual appearance.
>
>
>
>>W3C uses a hidden <hr> tag on
>>the home page to separate page content from the copyright info.
>
>
> The W3C site is not always the best example for the purest, most
> semantic use of markup, css, accessibility or anything else, so
> - regardless of this actual discussion on <hr> - I wouldn't use
> something found in their markup as an absolute proof.
>
> Patrick
> ________________________________
> Patrick H. Lauke
> Webmaster / University of Salford
> http://www.salford.ac.uk
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