[whatwg] Feeedback on <dfn>, <abbr>, and other elements related to cross-references
Lachlan Hunt
lachlan.hunt at lachy.id.au
Sun Apr 20 16:34:50 PDT 2008
Ian Hickson wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Oct 2005, Lachlan Hunt wrote:
>> Just a few issues regarding the use of abbr and dfn elements.
>>
>> *The abbr Element's title Attribute*
>>
>> I think the title attribute should also be allowed to be omitted from
>> the abbr element if there is another abbr element with a title attribute
>> for the same abbreviation in the document. This would be very useful
>> for cases where the same abbreviation is used multiple times, but is not
>> defined (using <dfn>) anywhere in the document.
>
> Why would that instance not use <dfn>?
It's quite common to use abbreviations without defining what they mean
the first time they're used in each document.
So in a document that discusses, for example, something about HTML and
marks up the first instance as <abbr title="Hypertext Markup
Language">HTML</abbr>, but doesn't actually define what HTML is, it
wouldn't be appropriate to use <dfn>. The idea was that subsequent
instances of of the abbreviation would be marked up without the title
attribute, but that would only be useful with the cross-referencing feature.
--
Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software
http://lachy.id.au/
http://www.opera.com/
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