[whatwg] Should <address> be more general-purpose?

[Simon Pieters]

On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:42:58 +0100, ddailey <ddailey at zoominternet.net>  
wrote:

> Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis and Simon Pieters are having a discussion that I  
> understand (at last... at least, sort of, or at least ... I think I do)  
> . The discussion concerns the meaning of the word "address" and the tag  
> <address>. How much of the meaning of the word should reflect (for good  
> or for ill) in the <tag>.

Hmm. At least I was not particularly discussing the meaning of the word  
"address".

An element name is just an opaque string -- its semantic meaning are given  
by the spec prose -- but it's helpful for authors if the element name can  
communicate what the element is for.

<address> has always represented "page author contact information". Not  
all authors know this however and instead use it for general postal  
addresses or general contact information not necessarily contact  
information for the page (or section) author. This may be because the  
element name doesn't give enough clue about what the element is for, or it  
gives the wrong clues, or because of other things. I don't know.

What I was discussing was whether the semantic meaning of <address> (i.e.  
the spec prose) should change from "page (or section) contact information"  
to just "contact information". There has also been suggestions to instead  
invent a new element with that semantic meaning.

-- 
Simon Pieters