Comment by sunshowers

1 day ago

So then what's the point of making this distinction? I would like to see surveys of how many people actually author content in forms that differentiate between b and strong.

5 comments

sunshowers

Reply
extra88  19 hours ago

Because the elements already exist. When the elements were invented and defined, CSS didn't exist and authors had to use elements to make presentational changes. When HTML5 was defined, CSS was well established and it was an opportunity to update element descriptions to get rid of specific presentational qualities.

There are lots of elements, if you don't find some of them useful, don't use them. Other people may find uses for the distinctions; even if they use distinctive styling for them all, they may need to document why they're used, not just for all the authors but for the audience as well; clearly we can't expect developers to know what all the elements are for so that's doubly true for the audience.

  • sunshowers  16 hours ago

    Personally I think we should declare that b and strong mean the same thing, and that i and em mean the same thing. As the other commenter points out, there's no real semantic difference between "bring attention to" and "emphasize".

Joker_vD  1 day ago

What, you don't know what's the difference between "emphasis" and "bringing attention to"? Shame on you, shame on you: you're unworthy to write HTML.

The difference, of course, is that one is a Latin word, and the other is an English phrase with the same meaning. But they're different words, so different tags. It's all completely rational and logical, and if you don't see the logic and/or reason, well: you're unworthy to write HTML. See Figure 1.

P.S. I love this ancient "see figure 1" meme. It's originated in the early 80s, and still as relevant as ever, and probably will be forever.

    Please stop submitting SPR's.  This is our system.  We designed
    it, we built it, and we use it more than you do.  If there are some
    features you think might be missing, if the system isn't as effective
    as you think it could be, TOUGH!  Give it back, we don't need you.
    See figure 1.

           ---------------------------
           !            -            !
           !           { }           !
           !           | |           !
           !           | |           !
           !        .-.! !.-.        !
           !      .-!  ! !  !.-.     !
           !      ! !       !  ;     !
           !      \           ;      !
           !       \         ;       !
           !        !       :        !
           !        !       |        !
           !        |       |        !
           !                         !
           ---------------------------
                     Figure 1.

lmm  8 hours ago

> So then what's the point of making this distinction?

It keeps the semantic web people busy not doing too much damage. Otherwise we might get an XHTML3 or CSS4 based on RDF triples or some such horror.