[whatwg] Feeedback on <dfn>, <abbr>, and other elements related to cross-references

[Jens Meiert]

> The point of <abbr> is to expand the acronym, not to just mark up what is
> an acryonym or abbreviation.

Doesn't this claim that the general information that some text is an
abbreviation (w/o an expanded form) is basically useless? And is
"<abbr>ISS</abbr>" not more useful since less ambiguous than "ISS"
(same abbreviation) and "ISS" (German imperative for "to eat" in
capitals), and be it just for AT, pronunciation and a scent of
semantics?

And why do we need to change what HTML 4 left "open" anyway in the
first place; I'm still not convinced that "indicates" really /needs/
to be replaced by "expands":

  ABBR: Indicates an abbreviated form (e.g., WWW, HTTP, URI, Mass., etc.). [1]


[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/text.html#edef-ABBR

-- 
Jens Meiert
http://meiert.com/en/