On 2012-11-08 10:51, Steve Faulkner wrote:
What the relevant new data clearly indicates is that in approx 80% of cases
when authors identify the main area of content it is the part of the
content that does not include header, footer or navigation content.
It also indicates that where skip links are present or role=main is used
their position correlates highly with the use of id values designating the
main content area of a page.
I'm wondering if maybe the following might satisfy both "camps" ?
Example1:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
</head>
<div>div before body</div>
<body>body text</body>
<div>div after body</div>
</html>
Example2:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
</head>
<header>header before body</header>
<body>body text</body>
<footer>footer after body</footer>
</html>
A html document ALWAYS has a body. So why not adjust the specs and free
the placement of <body>,
thus allowing div and header and footer blocks before/after.
Curretly http://validator.w3.org/check gives warning, but that is easily
fixed by allowing it.
The other issue is how will older browser handle this (backwards
compatibility) and how much/little work is it to allow this in current
browsers?
I'd rather see <body> unchained a little than having <main> added that
would be almost the same thing.
And if you really need to layout/place something "inside" <body> then
use a <article> or <div> instead of a <main>.
<body> already have a semantic meaning that's been around since way back
when, so why not unchain it?
As long as <body> and </body> are within <html> and </html> it shouldn't
matter if anything is before or after it.
Only issue that might be confusing would be
Example3:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
</head>
<header>header before body</header>
<body>body text</body>
<article>article outside body</article>
<footer>footer after body</footer>
</html>
In my mind this does not make sense at all.
So maybe Example2 should be used to "unchain" <body> a little.
Example2:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
</head>
<header>header before body</header>
<body>body text</body>
<footer>footer after body</footer>
</html>
Example4:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>header before body</header>
<div>body text</div>
<footer>footer after body</footer>
</body>
</html>
Example 4 is how I do it on some projects, while what I actually wish I
could do is Example 2 above.
Maybe simply unchaining <body> enough to allow one <header> and one
<footer> outside (but inside <html>) would be enough to satisfy people's
need?
I wondered since the start why <header> and <footer> could not be
outside <body>, it seems so logical after all!
--
Roger "Rescator" Hågensen.
Freelancer - http://www.EmSai.net/
