[html5] What is the point about nav, header, footer and aside elements?

[Ian Hickson]

On Wed, 28 Nov 2012, Markus Ernst wrote:
> 
> The longer the main element is discussed, the more I ask myself what is 
> actually the point in all the new semantic elements such as nav, header, 
> footer and aside.

The point is just to make the markup more readable, by letting people 
change:

   <div class="header">
    <div class="nav"> ... </div>
    <div class="aside"> ... </div>
   </div>

...to:

   <header>
    <nav> ... </nav>
    <aside> ... </aside>
   </header>

...and in their style sheets, change:

   .header { ... }
   .header > .nav { ... }
   .aside { ... }

...to:

   header { ... }
   header > nav { ... ]
   aside { ... }

The ARIA roles really aren't especially important in this context.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'