On Sun, 29 Jan 2006, Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
Besides, the <dl> element is so widely abused for mixed name/value
pairs that contain no definitions whatsoever that it's not
particularly useful semantically.
I think we agree on the observations; but I'm not sure that everyone
has to draw the same conclusion from it. The HTML/4.01 specification
already suggests a plausible application of the markup which quite
obviously is not a "definition":
||Another application of DL, for example, is for marking up dialogues,
||with each DT naming a speaker, and each DD containing his or her
||words.
which would fail the strict semantic test.
Given that many of the uses of <dl> that are observed "in the field"
(excluding those which are obviously so far adrift as to be bogus)
can be interpreted constructively as groups of "term and values", even
if they are beyond the borderline as regards your personal standards
of "definition", I think it's possible to accept a rather wider
interpretation of this markup for practical purposes.
You may parse that as me saying "since so many others are abusing it,
then I may as well abuse it myself", but I'd prefer to apply a more
positive and constructive interpretation than that.
I'm not saying the HTML/4.01 spec is always right - indeed I know that
in some places it effectively contradicts itself - but in this case I
think its acceptance of a wider semantic for <dl> isn't so bad as your
consistently expressed views about it.
IMHO and YMMV, of course.