[whatwg] <dfn> and <strong>; rel="glossary"

Edward O'Connor hober0 at gmail.com
Tue Aug 21 01:36:42 PDT 2007


Hi.

Currently, the only elements which work with dfn automatic
cross-referencing are <span>, <abbr>, <code>, <var>, <samp>, and <i>.[1]
I'd like to suggest adding <strong> to that list.

My specific use-case is the use of RFC 2119 terms in HTML. My
boilerplate looks like this:

<p>
  The key words "<dfn>MUST</dfn>", "<dfn>MUST NOT</dfn>",
  "<dfn>REQUIRED</dfn>", "<dfn>SHALL</dfn>", "<dfn>SHALL NOT</dfn>",
  "<dfn>SHOULD</dfn>", "<dfn>SHOULD NOT</dfn>",
  "<dfn>RECOMMENDED</dfn>", "<dfn>MAY</dfn>", and "<dfn>OPTIONAL</dfn>"
  in this document are to be interpreted as described in <a
  href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt"
     rel="help glossary">RFC 2119</a>.
</p>

Later in the text, I'd like to be able to say things like "Conforming
processors <strong>MUST</strong> frobnicate the widget vigorously," and
have the dfn association happen.

Secondly, I notice that the "glossary" link relation has been dropped. I
found it useful in the boilerplate above, and for other cases where a
document uses external definitions, such as what I imagine Christoph had
in mind in [2], and Eugene in [3].


1. http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-dfn
2. http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2006-March/006101.html
3. http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2006-January/005404.html




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