I see your point about backward compatibility but B and I aren't
technically, semantically empty. (If that makes sense).
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Harry Potter</span>
makes sense...
<b style="font-weight: normal;">Harry Potter</b>
does not.
B and I being visual tags should be removed from the markup and styled via
<SPAN> or inherited from its parent element, the styled using CSS. It's a
fundamental aspect of removing presentation from content; something I
believe should fail (but doesn't) the validator on any STRICT DTD check.
----
Now, that all said, I think that we're on pretty much the same side
on this issue. Edward also points out:
On Aug 16, 2005, at 11:51 PM, Edward Clarke wrote:
> You are correct, it hasn't been 'officially' deprecated but as
> visual tags
> and not logical ones; CSS offers a better long term solution.
When there are only semantically inappropriate tags to use (e.g., the
"a" tag as the original poster had implemented), then I opt for
semantically empty tags, with a class applied, and the class is
styled. Some opt for the semantically empty <span> tag; I opt for the
semantically empty <b> tag. In both cases, they must be styled to suit:
b.bookTitle { font-weight:bold; }
If you treat the b or i tag (or any other valid markup) as
semantically empty, then treat it in your CSS as having no default
style. The only advantage is backwards compatibility with non-CSS
browsers. As a long term solution, one must keep in mind that the
declared doctype is just as much a part of the document as the other
tags in it. Therefore, if I were to convert the doctype to, say,
XHTML 2, then it would be just as easy to use XSLT to convert <span
class="bookTitle"> to something appropriate as to convert <b
class="bookTitle"> to the same thing. If your doctype states XHTML
1.0 Strict, then that's the standard it needs to conform to.
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