[html5] Using <section> and <h1> ? Theoretical?

[Brian Tremblay]

On 5/14/14, 10:18 AM, Chris Rockwell wrote:
>
> On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 12:33 PM, Brian Tremblay wrote:
>
>> On 5/14/14, 9:30 AM, Bruce Lawson wrote:
>>
>>> On 14 May 2014 17:22, Brian Tremblay wrote:
>>>
>>>> What does the html 4 outline do?
>>>
>>> there isn't such a concept in HTML4
>>
>> That's sort of my point. The W3C are denigrating the html5 whatwg
>> outline model (<h1> in nested sections) because the outline is a
>> fiction. But what do authors lose by using that, instead of
>> <h2-6>?
>
> The point of the warning, as I see it, is to advise the author that
> if his/her intention is to be more accessible by using multiple
> <h1>'s, their efforts will not only be in vain as no UA's have
> implemented it (and some conversations infer they have no intention
> of doing so), but they could further confuse agents that have users
> depending on the accuracy of the outline.

*How* are users depending on the accuracy of the outline? What
user-agents do anything with the outline that breaks with the whatwg 
method? Bruce Lawson states that there is no concept of a document 
outline in html 4. I agree. So istm that authors lose exactly nothing by 
using <h1> only, since currently uas do nothing with it, and prior to 
html5, uas did nothing with it.

The only thing I see them doing with <h1>, <h2>, ect., is showing them 
on a page. The same thing they do with most elements, e.g., <table>, 
<dl>, <p>, etc. (<a> would be a very notable exception.) So the only 
problem I see is user agents which don't understand <section> and nested 
<h1> elements, *and* which either have css turned off or don't offer 
proper support for css. Is that accurate?

-- 
Brian Tremblay