Collin Davis wrote:
I like lists for stuff like this too; however, I prefer definition lists over unordered list. While CSS can be used to add presentation to any list, when CSS is off, unordered lists do little to convey any meaning or priority. Definition lists, even with CSS off, will continue to convey a reasonable sense of "item" grouping and precedence.
Do you mean in a semantic way here, or merely a presentational way?
I believe both to some extent. In a semantic way, definition lists offer grouped terms and descriptions--term "a" is directly related to description "a". Of course, the use of the word "term" is the part most people debate. Should definition lists only be used to define words or terms? The W3C kind of gives some latitude for usage, but there are no real guidelines to follow (1). Unordered lists also group items, but item "a" may be completely unrelated to item "b" in the same list except for some top-level criterion that applies to all items.
Given the following unordered list, there is no relationship stated between any of the <li>'s. "A" could be related to "b" and not related to "c" or "d", but it's not implied by the markup; the items are, naturally, unordered and possibly unrelated.
<ul> <li>a</li> <li>b</li> <li>c</li> <li>d</li> </ul>
If you take the same items and use a definition list, the relationship between the items becomes more obvious. I can clearly see that item "a" is directly related to item "b".
<dl> <dt>a</dt> <dd>b</dd> <dt>c</dt> <dd>d</dd> </dl>
The same thing applies, for me at least, visually. When using definition lists, I can see that certain items are related, while unordered lists just spits out row after row of bulleted items. Granted the unordered lists in your example are visually separated to some extent, but at a glance the separation isn't as evident.
When I am trying to provide a list where certain items in the list are related or grouped within itself, I think definition lists are a better choice. The example I provided before creates an entire element (the whole <dl>) within which, individual items are defined and grouped.
1: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/lists.html#h-10.3
I hope this helps explain my thoughts a little better.
-- Best regards, Michael Wilson
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