[whatwg] [html5] thoughts

[Ian Hickson]

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004, Jim Ley wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 00:13:33 +0000 (UTC), Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:
> > On Tue, 9 Nov 2004, Henri Sivonen wrote:
> > > In my opinion, solving input method problems at the data format level or in
> > > the display software is generally a bad idea. This needs to be solved on the
> > > OS text input method layer or, failing that, in the editing app.
> > 
> > I sometimes want to take quotes and put them into floats with huge
> > oversized quotemarks under the text at the top right and bottom left (it's
> > quite a common effect in glossy magazines). This can't be done unless you
> > can address the quotes directly somehow.
> 
> If the problem is addressing the quotes, then you presumably agree
> that the quotes are content and should be part of the document, not
> the style.

The quotes are content, yes.


> Equally, there's no problem at all achieving what you want by having 2
> extra em elements surrounding the quotes themselves.  (the size
> presumably emphasising the quote mark, or perhaps a span if you don't
> agree that it's emphasis)

As I said earlier in the thread, I'd rather drop the entire <q> element 
than introduce that kind of verbosity. I disagree that there is no problem 
here. I think it is quite horrible.


> I agree with Henri, this is an authoring problem, not a styling a problem.

But Henri agreed with me, saying that using markup for this was a bad 
idea.

Just because it is content doesn't mean it has to have an element. Look at 
the ::first-letter pseudo-element, for example -- the fact that a letter 
is the first letter is clearly a fact about the content, but it would be 
ridiculous to require that authors mark the first letter of every 
paragraph in markup just in case their stylist later wants to style it.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
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