[whatwg] [HTML5] 3.10.9. The |abbr| element

[Lachlan Hunt]

James Graham wrote:
> Lachlan Hunt wrote:
> 
>> Abbreviation expansions should only be supplied when they help the 
>> reader to understand the content, not just because the word happens to 
>> be an abbreviation.
> 
> I agree, unless using <abbr> with no title is useful to get the correct 
> rendering of abbreviations in non-visual media.

Using <abbr> without a title would be useful if it automatically 
referred to a previous instance with the title attribute.

e.g.

You could mark up the first occurance as like this

   <abbr title="As Far as I Know">AFAIK</abbr>

Then, later in the document, you could use it without the title attribute

   <abbr>AFAIK</abbr>

and a UA could allow the user to discover the expansion.  This idea is 
already somewhat supported in the current draft, but requires that it 
references the defining term of a previously marked up <dfn>, rather 
than just another occurrence of the same abbreviation.  IMHO, that part 
of the spec needs fixing.

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-dfn
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-abbr

-- 
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/