On Oct 31, 2008, at 7:57 PM, Ian Hickson wrote:
That's what the "class" attribute is for.

What's the difference then between <mark> and <span> then? I mean, does
the <mark> element provide anything that <span> with an appropriate
class wouldn't?

A default style when there's no CSS support, support in accessibility
tools, the ability for search engines to understand what's going on,
easier round-tripping between editors, simpler rules in CSS and other
selector-like environments, etc. The usual benefits of semantics.

Are we talking about assigning particular meanings to certain class names? Or are we saying "this is for semantic purposes, but do whatever you want with it, because nobody will see it except UAs that are applying CSS rules and users who view the HTML source code"? If the former, it's a terrible idea because developers have been working with the assumption that there are no reserved keywords so there are bound to be conflicts. If the latter... it doesn't really mean anything, does it?

By the way, I gave a ridiculous example earlier of why defining class="footnote" to have semantic meaning would be bad; I got really bored and fleshed out that example: http://phroggy.com/musicalfeet/

--
Andy Lyttle
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




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