[whatwg] Requests for new elements for comments

Thu Jan 26 12:47:17 PST 2012

Þann fim 26.jan 2012 14:48, skrifaði Matthew Wilcox:
> What's wrong with using a class on the <article> to identify the author
> stylistically? It's already identified semantically by having their name
> in the <article> itself, right (presumably in a <footer> too)?
As in <article class="asdf lolcats author-bjartur at spam.la>? Because then 
the class would contain content. That would depend on a stylesheet 
containing the identifier of every poster on every page. Generating such 
stylesheets from content already marked up in a page in a nonstandard 
fashion seems hackish at best, and harmful to usability at worst.

The situation only gets worse when you consider the different stylistic 
needs of various media. I might want the whole <footer> rendered to the 
relatively large desktop screen of mine, but omit everything but 
authors' name or identity on my handheld screen. <Address>, for example, 
should be hidden behind a menu button and the authors name displayed 
tersely.

The best solution I can think of is stating normatively that hCard 
<footer>s describe authors of the respected article or document. hCard 
does not, AFAIK, provide means to state URIs of authors, but indirect 
identification using email addresses should suffice.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<title>Example of Semantically Marking up Authors of Documents</title>
<article>
  <h1>An Article Written by Bjartur</h1>
  <p>This article was written to demonstrate how authorship might be 
marked up. I sure hope it's valid!</p>
  <footer class="hcard">
   <a class="fn email" href="mailto:bjartur at spam.la">Bjartur Thorlacius</a>
  </footer>
</article>