[whatwg] <b> Lede Example

[Ian Hickson]

On Thu, 18 Jun 2009, Smylers wrote:
>
> One of the examples of <b> is marking up a lede paragraph:
> 
>   http://www.whatwg.org/html5#the-b-element
> 
> Is a lede semantically relevant to the document such that it needs to be
> in the mark-up?

Sure, why not?


> Emboldening the first paragraph of an article seems like a matter of
> style to me, similar to using a drop cap for the first letter.

It's not always just the first paragraph. Sometimes it's the first 
sentence, or the first two paragraphs, or the first phrase, it varies 
based on the conventions of the publication and on the content.


> For example, if an article were syndicated to multiple news sites it's 
> conceivable that some would style the lede differently from other 
> paragraphs and some wouldn't -- and doing so or not wouldn't affect the 
> meaning of the article or its interpretation by readers.

Indeed, some would remove the styling of the <b>, some would not. It shows 
that <b> is not presentational in this case.


> So using CSS (I think article > h2 + p would do it) would seem more 
> appropriate than any mark-up here.  Especially since <b> is labelled as 
> "a last resort".

I don't see how the CSS can always know what the lede is.


> Highlighting specifically just the first sentence (even if the first 
> paragraph has multiple sentences) is more awkward, in that I don't think 
> it's currently possible with CSS.  But that it exists as a plausible 
> choice for presenting an article demonstrates how much a matter of 
> styling, rather than content, this area is.  And a limit of CSS should 
> be fixed in CSS, not HTML.  (<span class=lede> can always be used as a 
> work-around.)

I think it would be wrong to depend on CSS here, because even though the 
lede's desired presentation might vary from publication to publication, if 
the author wants a lede, then it should render, whether or not the user 
supports CSS.


In any case, this is just an example. Do you have any suggestions of 
another example to replace it?

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
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