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Comment by Vinnl

6 years ago

Two minor notes:

1. "Semantic web" refers to data being linked and having meaning. You're referring to semantic HTML.

2. I don't think <strong> meant <em> but more so - as I understood it, <strong> meant text that had to stand out from the rest, whereas <em> meant that text was emphasised. Though I might be confusing it now with the retro-actively applied "semantics" of <b> and <i>.

Totally agree with the overall point btw, and I do tend to use them in the way you described.

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Vinnl

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combatentropy  6 years ago

> I don't think <strong> meant <em> but more so

I guess it was an HTML 4 thing, the standard at the time of Markdown, https://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/text.html#h-9.2.1

<em>: emphasis.

<strong>: stronger emphasis.

I see that HTML 5 has tweaked their descriptions, https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/text-level-semantics....

<em>: stress emphasis

<strong>: strong importance, seriousness, or urgency

  • Vinnl  6 years ago

    Huh, I guess it was.

    Anyway, it was all a whole lot of "semantics-washing" anyway; it's lot like people strictly adhere to strong rules of when text should appear bold or in italics anyway.

    • adrianhel  6 years ago

      Agree. It's really missing the point of how this has been used in reality for the sake of promoting semantics in an area where semantics rarely matter.