[whatwg] "content" element, which we need in our documents

[Ian Yang]

As described in whatwg specs, a <section>, in this context, is a thematic
grouping of content, typically with a heading.

As for a <article>, which usually contains its own <header> and <footer>,
is used to form an independent content like blog entry, comment, or
application.

Both section and article elements are not the candidate for containing a
website or a blog entry's main content. That obviously is the reason that
the example of the nav in HTML5 spec doesn't use them.

Regards,
Ian Yang

2012/6/29 Cameron Jones <cmhjones at gmail.com>

> If the content is a special section within the document you should use
> the <section> element which has semantic meaning over <div>.
> Alternatively you could use <article> if it's distinct and
> self-contained. These two elements serve to disambiguate the abstract
> idea of content into something with semantic meaning which can be
> instrumented by document consumers.
>
> cam
>
> On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 12:24 PM, Ashley Sheridan
> <ash at ashleysheridan.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Ian Yang <ian.html at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>Hi editors in chief and everyone else,
> >>
> >>How have you been recently?
> >>
> >>As many of you may have been aware that there is an important
> >>sectioning
> >>element we have been short of for a long time: the "content" element.
> >>
> >>Remember how we sectioned our documents in those old days? It's the
> >>meaningless <div>s. We used them and added id="header", id="content",
> >>id="sidebar", and id="footer" to them.
> >>
> >>After HTML5 came out, we started to have new and semantic elements like
> >>"header", "aside", and "footer" to improve our documents.
> >>
> >>However, today, we are still using the meaningless <div> for our
> >>content.
> >>
> >>The main content forms an important region. And we often wrap it with
> >>an
> >>element. By doing so, we distinguish the region from the header and the
> >>footer, and also prevent all of its child elements (block level or
> >>inline
> >>level) being incorrectly at the same level as the header and the
> >>footer.
> >>
> >>In the first example of the intro section of the nav element in HTML5
> >>Spec
> >>( http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/single-page.html#the-nav-element ) (the
> >>page
> >>takes a while to be fully loaded), the bottom note states: "Notice the
> >>div
> >>elements being used to wrap all the contents of the page other than the
> >>header and footer, and all the contents of the blog entry other than
> >>its
> >>header and footer."
> >>
> >>This example mentioned above is a typical situation that we need an
> >>element
> >>for the main content. So instead of keep wrapping our contents with the
> >>meaningless <div>, why not let the "content" element join HTML5?
> >>
> >>
> >>Sincerely,
> >>Ian Yang
> >>Meaningful and semantic HTML lover  |  Front-end developer
> >
> > I am pretty sure this was discussed a few months back and the answer was
> that everything is content, so no need for a content element. The <header>
> and <footer> just mark up areas of that content with special meaning, but
> its still all the main content.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Ash
> > http://ashleysheridan.co.uk
>