[whatwg] Interpretation issue: can <section> be used for "extended paragraphs"?

[Martin Alterisio]

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 1:58 PM, Andy Mabbett <andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk>wrote:

> On 10 March 2011 08:20, Jukka K. Korpela <jkorpela at cs.tut.fi> wrote:
> > what should we say to people to need to use paragraphs
> > that contain lists, for example?
>
> This has concerned me for some time.
>
> Consider a more complex scenario:
>
> <p>I always like to eat these cheeses:</p>
> <ul>
>  <li>Cheddar
>  <li>Stilton
>  <li>Red Lester
> </ul>
> <p>but I enjoy them most with one of these biscuits:</p>
> <ul>
>  <li>wheat crackers
>  <li>rye crackers
>  <li>digestives
> </ul>
> <p>and some chutney.</p>
>
> What I would like to be able to do is:
>
> <p>I always like to eat these cheeses:
> <ul>
>  <li>Cheddar
>  <li>Stilton
>  <li>Red Lester
> </ul>
> but I enjoy them most with one of these biscuits:
> <ul>
>  <li>wheat crackers
>  <li>rye crackers
>  <li>digestives
> </ul>
> and some chutney.</p>
>
> Now I'm hungry :-(
>

The problem here lies not on the list elements but rather on the paragraph.
Consider the use cases where, instead of a list, the paragraph is split by a
<table>, <blockquote> or <pre>.

Semantically speaking, what is happening is that the paragraph is being
interrupted by some other kind of information. An UA that is smart enough
can imply this occurrence by the usage of the colon at the end of the
paragraph. Those UAs can take into account these use cases and build a
better outline for the document.

Even though in the semantic structure of the document the
list/table/quote/etc happens to be inside the paragraph, in the physical
structure of the document the list/table/quote/etc is not inside the
paragraph. Take into consideration how we write: we use the colon as a full
stop pause, introduce the in-between element leaving a space, then resume
the paragraph leaving another space after the in-between element.

PS: This is my first message to the list, and since I've only been lurking
for a short while, I'm not sure if it's customary to introduce oneself
before intervening in the discussions. I'm sorry if I did, in fact, break
any custom of this list, just blame it on the noob factor. Anyway, I'm just
a web developer, anything else can be easily found out with <fill in with
your favorite search engine>.