[whatwg] Expanding the cite element

[Schalk Neethling]

I guess this is the 'Paving the cowpaths' situation. Is there a 'standard' where most developers do as in the sample by Ted? Also, I cannot see a backwards compatibility issue as the uri attribute on cite should be optional. So if a developer used cite and then wrapped the containing text in a link, that would work fine. 

Going forward, the same developer can opt into using the new uri attribute of cite as opposed to wrapping the text in a link.

Schalk Neethling

-----Original Message-----
From: whatwg-bounces at lists.whatwg.org [mailto:whatwg-bounces at lists.whatwg.org] On Behalf Of Edward O'Connor
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 5:15 PM
To: Simpson, Grant Leyton
Cc: whatwg at lists.whatwg.org
Subject: Re: [whatwg] Expanding the cite element

> Is there any value in adding an "href" or "uri" or similar attribute 
> to the <cite> element to indicate a location for a work (or 
> information about the work) or, in the case of a URI, an indicator 
> that can be used as a reference programmatically?

<cite uri> has a much worse fallback story than simply embedding a link in <cite>.

> <p>As Ashley Crandall Amos says in <cite 
> uri="http://example.com/books/crandall/linguisticmeans">Linguistic 
> Means of Determining the Dates of Old English Literary Texts</cite> 
> ... Amos also mentions in <cite 
> uri="http://example.com/books/crandall/linguisticmeans">Linguistic
> Means</cite></p>

Consider how the above would work in legacy browsers, and then consider how this would work in them:

<p>As Ashley Crandall Amos says in <cite><a href="http://example.com/books/crandall/linguisticmeans">Linguistic Means of Determining the Dates of Old English Literary Texts</a></cite> ... Amos also mentions in <cite><a href="http://example.com/books/crandall/linguisticmeans">Linguistic
Means</a></cite></p>


Ted