[whatwg] Add 'type' attribute to <mark>

[Pentasis]

>>
>>   * As a style sheet selector (when an author wishes to assign style
>> information to a set of elements).
>>   * For general purpose processing by user agents."
>>
>> The first role is clear, it is used for styles (not semantics)
>
> Ian answered to this. You'll similarly or identically style elements
> with similar or identical meaning; in other words, you'll attach style
> to semantics, so your class names are likely to markup your document
> with additional semantics.

That is exactly why I think it is wrong. It gives me less flexibility. It 
means I must either style all footnotes (or whatever) the same, or introduce 
more classes/ids to style them differently and in that case I create a 
situation in which some classes are pure semantic and others are only there 
for style reasons and have a less than perfect semantic name 
("footnote-style-1" for example).

>
>> the second is
>> a bit more muddy I think, but the important part there is: "processing BY
>> user agents". User agents have no interest in semantics, so I fail to see
>> here also why classes may be used to define semantic roles.
>
> Microformats.

Don't get me wrong, microformats are a good idea, but they lack the 
construct in standards to be used efficiently. They should not use title or 
class attributes. They specify a role and pure semantics and have absolutely 
nothing to do with styling on their own.

>
>> The fact that a class should be named "footnote" for example is only so 
>> you
>> will not get in trouble (unlike when you use a name like "red" or 
>> "left").
>> But this only tells me (the author) that this element should be styled 
>> like
>> a footnote and for the user agent that it should render it like a 
>> footnote.
>> It should not tell me (or anything else) that it IS a footnote. This 
>> would
>> lead inevitably to inflexibility.
>
> Why not enclose your footnotes in <aside> elements?

Because it isn't an aside.

> Moreover, a note is not necessarily presented as a "footnote" (i.e.
> moved to the end of the "page"), it can be shown in the margin (as in
> the WHATWG version of the HTML5 spec) or in popup panels when you
> click on a word or "footnote reference" (similarly to definitions in
> the old HTMLHelp on Windows).

Very true, that is exactly what I have been saying. The current spec does 
not take this into account. As it stands now, I must assign a class-name to 
the footnote and then style (and perhaps script) based on that 
class-reference. But it fails to give me a proper element to do this. Like I 
said, I think the Mark element would be great, but then either it should get 
a "role" atribute or the examples given in the spec should give it a more 
flexible meaning.
Footnotes (and the likes) fall in the same catagory as definitions, so why 
not give it an element just like it? (or broaden the meaning of the 
dfn-element).

Bert