[whatwg] Predefined classes are gone
Ian Hickson
ian at hixie.ch
Tue Aug 7 23:12:14 PDT 2007
On Thu, 17 May 2007, Michel Fortin wrote:
> Le 2007-05-17 à 12:22, Adrienne Travis a écrit :
> >
> > A lot of us loved the IDEA of predefined "classes", but didn't like
> > the idea of confusing THAT mechanism with the CSS class mechanism.
>
> Personally, I really don't like thinking of class="" exclusively as a
> mechanism to associate styles. The fact that CSS makes it easy to select
> on a class name doesn't mean that class names are targeted at CSS.
> Predefined class names made that clear, now it's less clear.
>
> While not much in favor at first, I started to like the idea of
> predefined class names after a while. What I like is that it doesn't try
> reinvent a new parallel mechanism for what class *should have been* from
> the start. I think the initial idea was that the class attribute would
> cover the the semantics while CSS the presentation of those semantics.
> The only problem is that earlier specs left those semantics undefined,
> with no way to define them unambiguously. This explains why many people,
> including some standard advocates, started thinking of class as a way to
> attach style rules of the same name to their elements (basically making
> class presentational).
>
> So either we fix class, or we create a new attribute (role) (and leave
> class as a purely presentational hook for CSS? Hurk!). The advantage of
> class is that it's a lot easier to use in CSS selectors, making authors
> more likely to use them. The advantage of role is that it begins in a
> clean state, which could mean less false-positive -- I'm not sure this
> will stay true in the long run however, especially if people see role as
> "more semantic" than class and start to use it inconsiderably...
>
> I'd tend to think there are use cases where class is most appropriate
> and others where it'd be better to start with a clean new attribute
> (role), but that's just a general feeling based on everything I've seen
> to date.
I agree entirely with the sentiment given above, but I don't know what to
do about it. Suggestions? Is there some way to change the phrasing of the
spec for class="" to help here?
--
Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
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