[whatwg] several messages about <cite>

[Shannon]

>
> Ironically (given that you proposed using rel="" instead) as far as I know 
> Google has never based anything on class values, but has used rel="" 
> values (like rel="nofollow").

Which indicates to me that they were concerned enough about 
class="nofollow" to not use it. I personally think that "nofollow" is 
not a (rel)ationship and probably a misuse of that element. Anyway I'm 
not fixed on rel, it could be any name as long as it isn't type or 
class. It could be argued that conceptually "type", relationship" and 
"class" are three words that all mean exactly the same thing (the 
relationship of an object to its environment) but we have them all now 
and all apparently serving different purposes. Adding another attribute 
like category="movie" probably won't make things any easier.

For that reason I believe rel= for categories that "do" something and 
class= for categories that need styles/js is enough of a distinction as 
it helps keep designers and developers out of each others way.

>> As do I but that isn't relevant to the problem. If you feel that class 
>> should have a purpose other than it's widely used ones (styles and JS) 
>> then HTML5 must provide an alternative for these uses.
>>     
>
> I don't understand why you think it's an alternative use. All of these 
> uses are subclassing the element, the styling and scripting is then hookd 
> on those subclasses.
>
>   

It's alternative because it attempts to actually "classify" something 
rather than generically label it. I agree that class should only do the 
first and I do this with my own code but most designers do not. As far 
as the web design world is concerned class serves no purpose except as a 
JS/CSS hook. If you give class="book" or class="movie" special meaning 
or behaviour then you run the risk of clashing with existing stylesheets.

Right now the mainstream web is "misusing" class. If you suddenly make 
class meaningful then some sites are going to get stung and not 
necessarily at any fault of their own - since the intellectual 
distinctions between "labels" and "classes" is of no concern to somebody 
putting pretty borders on a page.

Shannon