[whatwg] maincontent element spec updated and supporting data provided

[Steve Faulkner]

Hi Ian,

>Like the succinct and simple name of complementary content (<aside>),
could we make the element name of the main content as succinct as <aside>?
For >instance, <main>?

I have responded on the HTML WG list to a similar naming preference
comment: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2012Oct/0112.html

> Since the complementary content (<aside>) is a sectioning element, could
we make the main content element a sectioning element, too?

Can you provide some more reasoning for making the element sectioning
content?

There is a now W3C bugzilla component  for the HTML5 maincontent extension,
you can file bugs against the spec there to ensure that your comments get
recorded and responded to:
https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/enter_bug.cgi?product=HTML%20WG&component=maincontent%20element


regards
SteveF

On 17 October 2012 04:17, Ian Yang <ian at invigoreight.com> wrote:

> Hi Steve,
>
> Thanks for the great research effort on the main content element.
>
> Like the succinct and simple name of complementary content (<aside>),
> could we make the element name of the main content as succinct as <aside>?
> For instance, <main>?
>
> Since the complementary content (<aside>) is a sectioning element, could
> we make the main content element a sectioning element, too?
>
>
> Kind Regards,
> Ian Yang
>
> On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 8:03 AM, Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I have updated the <maincontent> spec [1] and would appreciate any
>> feedback
>> (including, but not limited to implementers).
>>
>> In the process of developing the <maincontent> element spec [1] I looked
>> at
>> data from a number of sources [3] on frequency of usage  of id values to
>> indicate the main content area of a web page.
>>
>> I  also used data [2] I gathered in April 2012 based on a URL list of the
>> top 10,000 most popular web sites.
>>
>> In preparing the data [2] I subsetted the total usable HTML documents
>> (approx 8900 pages - the home pages for sites in the top 10,000 URLs list
>> )
>> by searching for the use of the HTML5 doctype (approx 1545 pages). I
>> figured that documents using the HTML5 doctype would provide the freshest
>> code.
>>
>>
>> What is apparent from the home page data in the sample:
>> *  use of a descriptive id to value to identify the main content area of a
>> web page is common. (id="main"|id="content"|id="
>> maincontent"|id="content-main"|id="main-content" used on 39% of the pages
>> in the sample [2])
>>
>>  * There is a strong correlation between use of ARIA role='main' [5] on an
>> element with id values of 'content' or 'main' or permutations. (when used
>> =
>> 101 pages)  77% were on an element with id values of 'content' or 'main'
>> or
>> permutations.
>> * There is a strong correlation between use of id values of 'content' or
>> 'main' or permutations as targets for 'skip to content'/'skip to main
>> content' links (when used = 67 pages) 78% of skip link targets # were
>> elements with id values of 'content' or 'main' or permutations.
>> * There appears to be a strong correlation in the identification of
>> content
>> areas (with id values of 'content' or 'main' or permutations.) as what is
>> described in the spec as appropriate content to be contained with a
>> <maincontent> element [1]:
>>
>> "The maincontent element
>> represents<http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/rendering.html#represents>the
>>
>> main
>> content section of the body of a document or application. The main content
>> section consists of content that is directly related to or expands upon
>> the
>> central topic of a document or central functionality of an application.
>> ...
>> The main content section of a document includes content that is unique to
>> that document and excludes content that is repeated across a set of
>> documents such as site navigation links, copyright information, site logos
>> and banners and search forms (unless the document or applications main
>> function is that of a search form)."
>>
>> I have prepared approx 440 sample pages [4] from the same URL set with CSS
>> to outline and identify use of container elements with id values of
>> 'content' and/or 'main' and role=main, these samples can be used to
>> visually assess how closely the spec definition of maincontent matches the
>> reality of element usage with the stated id values.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> [1]
>> https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-extensions/raw-file/tip/maincontent/index.html
>>
>> [2]
>>
>> http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2012/04/html5-accessibility-chops-data-for-the-masses/
>>
>> [3] http://triin.net/2006/06/12/CSS#figure-34,
>> http://westciv.typepad.com/dog_or_higher/2005/11/real_world_sema.html,
>> http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/mama-common-attributes/#id
>>
>> note: The first link in each list item links to the original page the
>> second link prefixed with "copy" is the same page with the CSS added.
>> [4] http://www.html5accessibility.com/tests/HTML5-main-content/
>>
>> [5] http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/roles#main
>>
>> --
>> with regards
>>
>> Steve Faulkner
>> Technical Director - TPG
>>
>> www.paciellogroup.com | www.HTML5accessibility.com |
>> www.twitter.com/stevefaulkner
>> HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives -
>> dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/
>> Web Accessibility Toolbar -
>> www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html
>>
>
>


-- 
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG

www.paciellogroup.com | www.HTML5accessibility.com |
www.twitter.com/stevefaulkner
HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives -
dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/
Web Accessibility Toolbar - www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html