Comments on: SimpleQuiz › Part II: A List

By: Scott Cropper

Scott Cropper — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 17:32:42 +0000

Poems and lyrics are not lists, rather they are texts that require formatting to be read/sung as the author intended. Therefore, they have no relevance when discussing how a list should be coded.

By: Asylum

Asylum — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 15:20:26 +0000

“A” could be correct if it’s an odd poem :D

By: jrtman

jrtman — Fri, 26 Dec 2003 08:50:36 +0000

“A” is aweful, “B” is almost as awful, “C” is almost correct but “D” is the correct answer as it is more complete.

By: SFT

SFT — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 17:29:34 +0000

Wow. I followed what I thought was a recent link to this question. Guess I ought to check the homepage next time..

By: SFT

SFT — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 14:30:40 +0000

I was about to say the same as MikePond. There are two types of content I’ve come up with where
is appropriate: poetry/lyrics and mailing addresses. In both these cases, makes better semantic sense than
because you’re marking up the stuff rather than empty space. Also would give you more styling flexibility.
Does there exist a proper use for
where wouldn’t be better? I.e., where the linebreak —- NOT the line —- is the structural unit?

By: Niket

Niket — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 06:25:05 +0000

The more appropriate question is when should a list be used and when should it not. There is no denying that D is the correct answer here. But when in the use of list appropriate and when is it not?
In general, (X)HTML is not a semantic language as of now. Forcing a structure, more than what is necessary, is going to make (X)HTML use more and more cumbersome. Flexibility was the cornerstone of HTML’s success. While we try to push standard-compliant and accessible design, we should shed our dogma.
A list is defined as a series of related items. A list is always itemized. So while:
“Some of my friends who showed up at the party include Tom, Dick, Harry, John and Jim.”
contains a series of related items, its a list. However, semantically speaking, it not. For example, you wont use \begin{itemize} in TeX; nor would you use list in any of the typsetting, editing or DTP software.
I believe my point is that SEMANTICS is related to both STRUCTURAL as well as VISUAL display.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 21:24:59 +0000

D is the correct answer. the others are invalid markup, or can lead to confusing code.

By: Raena

Raena — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 08:59:07 +0000

Brian: the CSS to have the browser render a real list is easy peasy. Check it out.

By: MikePond

MikePond — Wed, 03 Sep 2003 21:38:09 +0000

Isn’t it true that XHTML 2 removes the
tag, but provides a tag, so that you would mark up a poem with the ‘line’ elements nested within ‘paragraph’ elements? That seems like the most semantically correct way to do things like poems. Too bad we don’t already have it.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 03 Sep 2003 21:19:44 +0000

D is correct, of course, but I admittedly prefer A. I don’t like it when browsers apply their own default styles to my pages. :/ I also wrap paragraphs in

. It validates, but it might as well not.
Utterly unprofessional, I know, but I’m not really a professional.
I feel so …impure…