HTML 5 Publication Notes

Section 3.7.3, The base element # T

In this section, the phrase “valid browsing context name” was emended to become valid browsing context name or keyword.

Section 3.7.4, The link element # T

In this section, the following changes were made:

• The sizes content attribute was added to the list of conformant attributes for the element, and the sizes DOM attribute was added to the interface definition for the HTMLLinkElement interface.
• Conformance criteria for the sizes content attribute and sizes DOM attribute were added.
• The following note was added: Hyperlinks created with the link element and its rel attribute apply to the whole page. This contrasts with the rel attribute of a and area elements, which indicates the type of a link whose context is given by the link’s location within the document.
• Other refinements were made to language in this section, including the addition of the following statements:

  HTTP semantics must be followed when fetching external resources. (For example, redirects must be followed and 404 responses must cause the external resource to not be applied.)

  If no type metadata is specified, but the external resource link type has a default type defined, then the user agent must assume that the resource is of that type.

Section 3.7.5, The meta element # T

In this section, the following changes were made:

• A statement was added that The charset attribute specifies the character encoding used by the document. This is called a character encoding declaration.
• The text of the “Specifying the document’s character encoding” subsection was refined, with the following statements added:

  If the document contains a meta element with a charset attribute or a meta element in the Encoding declaration state, then the character encoding used must be an ASCII-compatible character encoding.

  An ASCII-compatible character encoding is one that is a superset of US-ASCII (specifically, ANSI_X3.4-1968) for bytes in the range 0x09 - 0x0D, 0x20, 0x21, 0x22, 0x26, 0x27, 0x2C - 0x3F, 0x41 - 0x5A, and 0x61 - 0x7A.

• The value dns was removed from the list of pre-defined values for the name attribute.
• The value description was added to the list of pre-defined values for the name attribute, and defined as:

  The value must be a free-form string that describes the page. The value must be appropriate for use in a directory of pages, e.g. in a search engine.

• The value application-name was added to the list of pre-defined values for the name attribute, and defined as:

  The value must be a short free-form string that giving the name of the Web application that the page represents. If the page is not a Web application, the application-name metadata name must not be used. User agents may use the application name in UI in preference to the page’s title, since the title might include status messages and the like relevant to the status of the page at a particular moment in time instead of just being the name of the application.

• The Content-Type keyword and corresponding Encoding declaration state added to a table that lists conformant keyword values for the http-equiv attribute and their corresponding states; also, a definition for the Encoding declaration state was added, and refinements were made in the “Specifying the document’s character encoding” subsection.
• A part of the “Refresh state” algorithm was revised to refer to the document’s source browsing context.

Section 3.7.6, The style element # T

In this section, a refinement was made to the definition of the media attribute.

Section 3.8.1, The body element # T

In this section, an interface definition was added for the DOM interface for the body element.

Section 3.8.3, The nav element # T

In this section, an example was added, along with the following statement:

Not all groups of links on a page need to be in a nav element — only sections that consist of primary navigation blocks are appropriate for the nav element. In particular, it is common for footers to have a list of links to various key parts of a site, but the footer element is more appropriate in such cases.

Section 3.8.5 [now 3.9.6], The blockquote element # T

The section on the blockquote element was moved to become a subsection of the “Grouping content” elements section.

Section 3.8.6 [now 3.8.5], The aside element # T

In this section, two examples were added.

Section 3.8.8 [now 3.8.7], The header element # T

In this section, some wording refinements were made.

Section 3.8.9 [now 3.8.8], The footer element # T

In this section, an example was added.

Section 3.8.10 [now 3.8.9], The address element # T

In this section, a statement was added that if an address element applies to the body element, then it instead applies to the document as a whole, and in several places, the phrase “sectioning element” was changed to sectioning content element.

Section 3.8.11 [now 3.8.10], Headings and sections # T

Several parts of this section were extensively re-written. Among some of the specific changes:

• The term sectioning roots has been introduced and defined.
• In the “Creating an outline”, a numbered set of steps was added to define the outline algorithm, and other details were added.
• In the final subsection, the term “headers” has been replaced by “headings”, including in the title, which now reads “Distinguishing site-wide headings from page headings”, and some refinements were made to the wording of the subsection.

Section 3.9.4 [was 3.10.1], The pre element # T

This subsection was created when the previous section for the pre element was moved down in the sectioning hierarchy to become a subsection the “Grouping content” section. Also, the following note was added:

In the HTML serialisation, a leading newline character immediately following the pre element start tag is stripped.

Section 3.9.6 [was 3.8.5], The blockquote element # T

This subsection was created when the previous section for the blockquote element was moved out of the “Sections” section and into the “Grouping content” section. Also, some small refinements were made to the wording of the section.

Section 3.9.7 [was 3.11.1], The ol element # T

In this section, the following changes were made:

• The reversed content attribute was added to the list of conformant attributes for the element, and the reversed DOM attribute was added to the interface definition for the HTMLOListElement interface.
• Conformance criteria for the reversed content attribute and reversed DOM attribute were added.
• A statement defining the meaning of the element, which had read, “The ol element represents an ordered list of items (which are represented by li elements)“, was revised to read, The ol element represents a list of items, where the items have been intentionally ordered, such that changing the order would change the meaning of the document.
• The following statements were added: The reversed attribute is a boolean attribute. If present, it indicates that the list is a descending list (..., 3, 2, 1). If the attribute is omitted, the list is an ascending list (1, 2, 3, ...).
• Conformance statements relevant to the reversed content attribute and reversed DOM attribute were updated or added where needed throughout the text.
• Two examples were added.

Section 3.9.8 [was 3.11.2], The ul element # T

In this section, the definition of the meaning of the ul element, which had read, “The ul element represents an unordered list of items” was changed to read, The ul element represents a list of items, where the order of the items is not important — that is, where changing the order would not materially change the meaning of the document, and two examples were added.

Section 3.9.9 [was 3.11.3], The li element # T

In this section, two examples were added.

Section 3.9.10 [was 3.11.4], The dl element # T

In this section, the following changes were made:

• a sentence in the definition of the meaning of the dl element was slightly modified to remove the criterion that it introduces an “unordered association list”, such that the sentences now reads, The dl element introduces an association list consisting of zero or more name-value groups (a description list).
• Significant refinements and additions were made to the language in the section.
• The set of examples was expanded.

Section 3.9.11 [was 3.11.5], The dt element # T

In this section, the following statement was added:

If the dt element is the child of a dialog element, and it further contains a time element, then that time element represents a timestamp for when the associated discourse (dd element) was said, and is not part of the name of the talker.

Also, two examples were added.

Section 3.10.1, The a element # T

In this section, the interface definition for the HTMLAnchorElement interface was updated for consistency with the Web IDL specification [WebIDL].

Section 3.10.2, The q element # T

In this section, some wording changes were made, four examples were added, and the following statement was added:

Quotation punctuation (such as quotation marks), if any, must be placed inside the q element.

Section 3.10.3, The cite element # T

In this section, more examples were added, and the text defining the meaning of the cite element, which had read simply, “The cite element represents a citation: the source, or reference, for a quote or statement made in the document”, was expanded to read:

The cite element represents the title of a work (e.g. a book, a paper, an essay, a poem, a score, a song, a script, a film, a TV show, a game, a sculpture, a painting, a theatre production, a play, an opera, a musical, an exhibition, etc). This can be a work that is being quoted or referenced in detail (i.e. a citation), or it can just be a work that is mentioned in passing.

A person’s name is not the title of a work — even if people call that person a piece of work — and the element must therefore not be used to mark up people’s names. (In some cases, the b element might be appropriate for names; e.g. in a gossip article where the names of famous people are keywords rendered with a different style to draw attention to them. In other cases, if an element is really needed, the span element can be used.)

A ship is similarly not a work, and the element must not be used to mark up ship names (the i element can be used for that purpose).

Section 3.10.7, The mark element [was: the m element] # T

The m element was renamed mark; in this section, the set of examples was significantly enlarged, and the text defining the meaning of the element, which had read simply, “The m element represents a run of text marked or highlighted”, was expanded to read:

The mark element represents a run of text in one document marked or highlighted for reference purposes, due to its relevance in another context. When used in a quotation or other block of text referred to from the prose, it indicates a highlight that was not originally present but which has been added to bring the reader’s attention to a part of the text that might not have been considered important by the original author when the block was originally written, but which is now under previously unexpected scrutiny. When used in the main prose of a document, it indicates a part of the document that has been highlighted due to its likely relevance to the user’s current activity.

Section 3.10.8, The dfn element # T

The text defining the dfn elements has changed significantly. The changes include:

• The most significant change is that text describing a mechanism by which the dfn element could be used to enable automatic cross-references has been removed completely, and replaced by a statement that An a element that links to a dfn element represents an instance of the term defined by the dfn element.
• Text that had previously read, “The paragraph, description list group, or section that contains the dfn element contains the definition for the term given by the contents of the dfn element” now reads (change highlighted): The paragraph, description list group, or section that is the nearest ancestor of the dfn element must also contain the definition(s) for the term given by the dfn element.
• The following conformance requirement was removed completely: “There must only be one dfn element per document for each term defined (i.e. there must not be any duplicate terms).”
• An additional example was added to illustrate use of the a element in conjunction with the dfn element (to make an explicit cross-reference to a defining instance of a particular term).

Section 3.10.9, The abbr element # T

Refinements and changes were made to the text in this section; the changes include:

• The text defining the meaning of the abbr element was refined to now read (changes highlighted): The abbr element represents an abbreviation or acronym, optionally with its expansion. The title attribute may be used to provide an expansion of the abbreviation. The attribute, if specified, must only contain an expansion of the abbreviation, and nothing else.
• The following statement was removed completely: “The title attribute may be omitted if there is a dfn element in the document whose defining term is the abbreviation (the textContent of the abbr element).”
• The following authoring-conformance requirement was added: If an abbreviation is pluralised, the expansion’s grammatical number (plural vs singular) must match the grammatical number of the contents of the element.
• The set of examples was expanded and includes the addition of an example prefaced by the following text: This paragraph marks up an abbreviation without giving an expansion, possibly as a hook to apply styles for abbreviations (e.g. smallcaps).

Section 3.10.11, The progress element # T

In this section, a conformance statement was updated to read: If the progress bar is an indeterminate progress bar, then the position DOM attribute must return -1. (The statement had previously indicated that is should return 1.) Also, the following note was added: The progress element is the wrong element to use for something that is just a gauge, as opposed to task progress. For instance, indicating disk space usage using progress would be inappropriate. Instead, the meter element is available for such use cases.

Section 3.10.12, The meter element # T

In this section, the following changes were made:

• In the interface definition for the HTMLMeterElement interface, the data type for all attributes was changed from long to float.
• A statement providing authoring requirements was changed to now read (change highlighted): The recommended way of giving the value is to include it as contents of the element, either as two numbers (the higher number represents the maximum, the other number the current value, and the minimum is assumed to be zero), or as a percentage or similar (using one of the characters such as “%”), or as a fraction.
• A statement regarding the conformant values for the attributes on the meter was added; it states that “their values must satisfy the following inequalities”:
  • min ≤ value ≤ max
  • min ≤ low ≤ high ≤ max
  • min ≤ optimum ≤ max

Section 3.10.13, The code element # T

In this section, the following statement was removed completely: “the title attribute has special semantics on this element when used with the dfn element”, and another example was added.

Section 3.10.14, The var element # T

In this section, the following statement was removed completely: “the title attribute has special semantics on this element when used with the dfn element”.

Section 3.10.15, The samp element # T

In this section, the following statement was removed completely: “the title attribute has special semantics on this element when used with the dfn element”.

Section 3.10.17, The sub and sup elements # T

In this section, the following note was added: Authors are encouraged to use MathML for marking up mathematics, but authors may opt to use sub and sup if detailed mathematical markup is not desired.

Section 3.10.18, The span element # T

In this section, the following statement was removed completely: “the title attribute has special semantics on this element when used with the dfn element”; also removed was a statement that the span element can be useful “when used in conjunction with the dfn element”.

Section 3.10.19, The i element # T

In this section, the following changes were made:

• A statement was removed completely: “the title attribute has special semantics on this element when used with the dfn element”.
• A refinement was made to one of the examples.
• The following note was added:

  Authors are encouraged to use the class attribute on the i element to identify why the element is being used, so that if the style of a particular use (e.g. dream sequences as opposed to taxonomic terms) is to be changed at a later date, the author doesn’t have to go through the entire document (or series of related documents) annotating each use.

Section 3.10.22 [new], The ruby element # T

This section is newly added. It concerns the ruby element, which allows more spans of content to be marked up with ruby annotations (sometimes used, for example, with East Asian characters to provide “readings” or pronunciations for the characters).

Section 3.10.23 [new], The rt element # T

This section is newly added. It concerns the rt element, which is used to mark up the “text component” of a ruby annotation.

Section 3.10.24 [new], The rp element # T

This section is newly added. It concerns the rp element, which can be used to provide parentheses around a ruby “text component” of a ruby annotation, to be shown by user agents that don’t support ruby annotations.

Section 3.10.25 [new], Usage summary # T

This section is newly added. It is a placeholder with an editorial note that reads, “We need to summarise the various elements, in particular to distinguish b/i/em/strong/var/q/mark/cite.”

Section 3.10.26 [new], Footnotes # T

This section is newly added. The introduction to the section states, ”HTML does not have a dedicated mechanism for marking up footnotes. Here are the recommended alternatives”, and the section includes descriptions and examples of use of the title attribute, a element, and the aside element in marking up footnote content.

Section 3.11.4 [new], Edits and paragraphs # T

This subsection was created by moving a large note out of the introduction to its parent section, “Edits”. The content of this subsection provides information and examples illustrating the difficulties of attempting to mark up edits that cross implied paragraphs).

Section 3.11.5 [new], Edits and lists # T

This section, which is newly added, relates to use of the ins and del elements with list items. The text provides both examples and authoring-conformance requirements, and begins with the following statement: The content models of the ol and ul elements do not allow ins and del elements as children. Lists always represent all their items, including items that would otherwise have been marked as deleted.

Section 3.12.1, The figure element # T

In this section, the following changes were made:

• The category “sectioning root” was added to the list of categories to which the figure element belongs.
• The content model for the element was changed to make the legend element optional as a child of figure (instead of being a required child), and the first statement in the prose description of the element was updated to read, “The figure element represents some flow content, optionally with a caption, which can be moved away from the main flow of the document without affecting the document’s meaning.
• The following statement was added:

  The element can thus be used to annotate illustrations, diagrams, photos, code listings, etc, that are referred to from the main content of the document, but that could, without affecting the flow of the document, be moved away from that primary content, e.g. to the side of the page, to dedicated pages, or to an appendix.

• Several examples were added.

Section 3.12.2, The img element # T

In this section, the following changes were made:

• The title of a subsection that discusses specific use cases from the element was changed from “A key part of the content that doesn’t have an obvious textual alternative” to simply, “A key part of the content”. The text of that same subsection was changed to now read:

  In some cases, the image is a critical part of the content. This could be the case, for instance, on a page that is part of a photo gallery. The image is the whole point of the page containing it.

  When it is possible for alternative text to be provided, for example if the image is part of a series of screenshots in a magazine review, or part of a comic strip, or is a photograph in a blog entry about that photograph, text that conveys can serve as a substitute for the image must be given as the contents of the alt attribute.

  In a rare subset of these cases, there might be no alternative text available. This could be the case, for instance, on a photo upload site, if the site has received 8000 photos from a user without the user annotating any of them. In such cases, the alt attribute may be omitted, but the alt attribute should be included, with a useful value, if at all possible.

  In any case, if an image is a key part of the content, the alt attribute must not be specified with an empty value.

• The alt text for the “Screenshot of a KDE desktop” example was expanded.
• The prefatory text for one of the examples was updated to read: A photo on a photo-sharing site, if the site received the image with no metadata other than the caption.
• A portion of a note that had read, “the alt attribute should only be omitted when no alternative text is available and none can be made available, e.g. on automated image gallery sites” was revised to now read (change portion highlighted), the alt attribute is only allowed to be omitted when no alternative text is available and none can be made available, e.g. on automated image gallery sites.
• A statement that had read, “Once the download has completed, if the image is a valid image, the user agent must fire a load event on the img element” was emended to read (added text highlighted), Once the download has completed, if the image is a valid image, the user agent must fire a load event on the img element (this happens after complete starts returning true).
• A note was added with the following text: The value of complete can change while a script is execu