[whatwg] The m element

[Charles McCathieNevile]

I fail to see how this is different from an em element... (very loose and abused 
semantics, but I dont see how adding a new element to mess up is helpful)

my 2 cents

chaals

On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:19:56 +0100, Sarven Capadisli <csarven at gmail.com> wrote:

> re: http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-m
>
> Following is a conversation from #whatwg on freenode.
>
> <csarven> if anyone would like to explain the `m` element further, i'd
> appreciate it. couldn't get much info out of the whatwg Archives
>
> <zcorpan> you use it to mark text
>
> <csarven> 'mark' as in making the location of the content more
> significant then the rest?
>
> <zcorpan> not sure what you mean with the location
>
> <csarven> where the mentioned text is in the document.
>
> <csarven> to me it seems to be more of a presentational issue then
> having a semantic meaning behind it
>
> <zcorpan> there may be different reasons behind why you want to mark
> or highlight a piece of text
>
> <csarven> for instance?
>
> <zcorpan> one reason might be to highlight search terms, another may
> be to mark errors in the document, or things you should remember
> specifically
>
> <csarven> in those cases the marked text has no extra meaning other
> then how it would be viewed or interpreted. "highlighting does not
> change the reading of the text when you're reading straight through,
> it just helps you find the bits you should pay attention to." -
> http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2005-May/003946.html
>
> <csarven> in that sense, why not `span` with a class?
>
> <csarven> im trying to understand this better (not arguing with you) 
>
> <zcorpan> span with a class is longer to type 
>
> <csarven> that i can't argue 
>
> <mpt> Like on those pissantly annoying "Welcome Google user! You
> searched for xyz" pages, where xyz is highlighted
>
> <csarven> the 'text' though has no extra meaning. `m` seems to handle
> a presentational issue. like i was wondering, why not `span` with a
> class which can cover numerous cases similar to highlighting
>
> <zcorpan> i don't think highlighting is presentational
>
> <csarven> how should `m` be treated under Lynx?
>
> <zcorpan> it could have a different text color and you could have a
> shortcut key to jump to the next <m> element
>
> <csarven> as opposed to a predefined class name 'marked' that does just that?
>
> <zcorpan> i don't think <m> is any better than <span class=marked>
> except that the former is shorter
>
> <csarven> but thats introducing a new element for a very narrow usage
> especially where it has no extra meaning. given the idea that the
> reading of the marked text is no different then any other text on the
> page, i fail to see why a new element is necessary where `span` with a
> class can handle this scenario. i also can't come to terms with a new
> element being introduced because `span` with a class is too long in
> comparison to `m`. 
> 



-- 
Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software: Standards Group
hablo español - je parle français - jeg lærer norsk
chaals at opera.com Try Opera 9.1 http://opera.com