[whatwg] Giving the <body> tag a new meaning.

Tue Mar 1 12:09:53 PST 2011

The real issue is with change, never is too late.
Many of the new elements in html5 are for semantic purposes. Being now a
<header> and a <footer>, there is only one left thing that's pretty obvious.

I am not proposing the body tag for disappear, but allow it for a new
implementation. And perhaps in say 10 years, discontinue it as document
start element, when the change be widely spread.

The reason? a better semantics advantages.

2011/3/1 Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage at gmail.com>

> On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 10:54 AM, usuario <soyhobo at gmail.com> wrote:
> > According to the spec:
> > The body element represents the body of a document (as opposed to the
> > document’s metadata).
> >
> > I think definition is a bit ambiguous.
> >
> > We may think in giving it a more explicit meaning, and freeing it for
> > semantic availability (just an example):
> >
> > <!DOCTYPE html>
> > <html>
> >    <head> <!--<metadata>, <system>, <config> -->
> >        <meta></meta>
> >        <script></script>
> >        <link></link>
> >    </head>
> >    <markup> <!-- <window>, <render>, <main>, <app>, <structure> -->
> >        <header>
> >            <h1></h1>
> >            <p></p>
> >        </header>
> >        <body>
> >            <p></p>
> >            <p></p>
> >        </body>
> >        <footer>
> >            <p></p>
> >        </footer>
> >    </markup>
> > </html>
>
> I don't understand what problem you're trying to solve, nor what your
> proposal is.
>
> Are you proposing to rename <body>?  If so, there are significant
> legacy constraints preventing that (namely, a lot of code depends on a
> missing <body> tag being inferred).
>
> ~TJ
>