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Bug 83 - Respond to feedback on <cite> and cite='' -- titles of works, citations, and examples thereon
Respond to feedback on <cite> and cite='' -- titles of works, citations, and ...
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Product: Validator.nu
Classification: Unclassified
Component: General
HEAD
All All
: P2 normal
Assigned To: Henri Sivonen
http://svn.whatwg.org/webapps/source?...
: 121 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2008-03-03 13:06 CET by Nobody
Modified: 2008-03-05 15:11 CET (History)
0 users

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Description Nobody 2008-03-03 13:06:15 CET
Index: source
===================================================================
--- source	(revision 1233)
+++ source	(revision 1234)
@@ -6782,12 +6782,13 @@
   users to follow such citation links.</p>
 
   <p>If a <code>blockquote</code> element is <span>preceded or
-  followed</span> by a <span>paragraph</span> that contains a single
-  <code>cite</code> element and is itself not <span>preceded or
-  followed</span> by another <code>blockquote</code> element and does
-  not itself have a <code>q</code> element descendant, then, the
-  citation given by that <code>cite</code> element gives the source of
-  the quotation contained in the <code>blockquote</code> element.</p>
+  followed</span> by a single <span>paragraph</span> that contains a
+  single <code>cite</code> element and that is itself not
+  <span>preceded or followed</span> by another <code>blockquote</code>
+  element and does not itself have a <code>q</code> element
+  descendant, then, the title of the work given by that
+  <code>cite</code> element gives the source of the quotation
+  contained in the <code>blockquote</code> element.</p>
 
   <p>The <dfn title="dom-quote-cite"><code>cite</code></dfn> DOM
   attribute <code>reflects</code> the element's <code
@@ -7713,7 +7714,7 @@
   <code>q</code>, or <code>blockquote</code> elements in this
   markup. Indeed, a <code>q</code> element inside a <code>dd</code>
   element in a conversation would actually imply the people talking
-  were themselves quoting someone else. See the <code>cite</code>,
+  were themselves quoting another work. See the <code>cite</code>,
   <code>q</code>, and <code>blockquote</code> elements for other ways
   to cite or quote.</p>
 
@@ -8286,8 +8287,9 @@
   <p>If a <code>q</code> element is contained (directly or indirectly)
   in a <span>paragraph</span> that contains a single <code>cite</code>
   element and has no other <code>q</code> element descendants, then,
-  the citation given by that <code>cite</code> element gives the
-  source of the quotation contained in the <code>q</code> element.</p>
+  the title of the work given by that <code>cite</code> element gives
+  the source of the quotation contained in the <code>q</code>
+  element.</p>
 
   <!-- XXX need examples -->
 
@@ -8308,33 +8310,108 @@
    <!-- XXX should the cite element have a cite attribute? -->
   </dl>
 
-  <p>The <code>cite</code> element represents a citation: the source,
-  or reference, for a quote or statement made in the document.</p>
+  <p>The <code>cite</code> 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.</p>
+
+  <p>A person's name is not the title of a work &mdash; even if people
+  call that person a piece of work &mdash; and the element must
+  therefore not be used to mark up people's names. (In some cases, the
+  <code>b</code> 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 <em>really</em> needed, the
+  <code>span</code> element can be used.)</p>
+
+  <p>A ship is similarly not a work, and the element must not be used
+  to mark up ship names (the <code>i</code> element can be used for
+  that purpose).</p>
+
+  <div class="example">
+
+   <p>This next example shows a typical use of the <code>cite</code>
+   element:</p>
+
+   <pre>&lt;p>My favourite book is &lt;cite>The Reality Dysfunction&lt;/cite> by
+Peter F. Hamilton. My favourite comic is &lt;cite>Pearls Before
+Swine&lt;/cite> by Stephan Pastis. My favourite track is &lt;cite>Jive
+Samba&lt;/cite> by the Cannonball Adderley Sextet.&lt;/p></pre>
+
+  </div>
+
+  <div class="example">
+
+   <p>This is correct usage:</p>
+
+   <pre>&lt;p>According to the Wikipedia article &lt;cite>HTML&lt;/cite>, as it
+stood in mid-February 2008, leaving attribute values unquoted is
+unsafe. This is obviously an over-simplification.&lt;/p></pre>
+
+   <p>The following, however, is incorrect usage, as the
+   <code>cite</code> element here is containing far more than the
+   title of the work:</p>
+
+   <pre>&lt;p>According to &lt;cite>the Wikipedia article on HTML&lt;/cite>, as it
+stood in mid-February 2008, leaving attribute values unquoted is
+unsafe. This is obviously an over-simplification.&lt;/p></pre>
+
+  </div>
+
+  <div class="example">
+
+   <p>The <code>cite</code> element is obviously a key part of any
+   citation in a bibliography, but it is only used to mark the
+   title:</p>
+
+   <pre>&lt;p>&lt;cite>Universal Declaration of Human Rights&lt;/cite>, United Nations,
+December 1948.  Adopted by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III).&lt;/p></pre>
+
+  </div>
 
   <p class="note">A <em>citation</em> is not a <em>quote</em> (for
   which the <code>q</code> element is appropriate).</p>
 
   <div class="example">
 
-   <p>This is incorrect usage:</p>
+   <p>This is incorrect usage, because <code>cite</code> is not for
+   quotes:</p>
 
    <pre>&lt;p>&lt;cite>This is wrong!&lt;/cite>, said Ian.&lt;/p></pre>
 
-   <p>This is the correct way to do it:</p>
+   <p>This is also incorrect usage, because a person is not a
+   work:</p>
 
-   <pre>&lt;p>&lt;q>This is correct!&lt;/q>, said &lt;cite>Ian&lt;/cite>.&lt;/p></pre>
+   <pre>&lt;p>&lt;q>This is still wrong!&lt;/q>, said &lt;cite>Ian&lt;/cite>.&lt;/p></pre>
 
-   <p>This is also wrong, because the title and the name are not
-   references or citations:</p>
+   <p>The correct usage does not use a <code>cite</code> element:</p>
 
-   <pre>&lt;p>My favourite book is &lt;cite>The Reality Dysfunction&lt;/cite>
-by &lt;cite>Peter F. Hamilton&lt;/cite>.&lt;/p></pre>
+   <pre>&lt;p>&lt;q>This is correct&lt;/q>, said Ian.&lt;/p></pre>
 
-   <p>This is correct, because even though the source is not quoted, it is cited:</p>
+   <p>As mentioned above, the <code>b</code> element might be relevant
+   for marking names as being keywords in certain kinds of
+   documents:</p>
 
-   <pre>&lt;p>According to &lt;cite>the Wikipedia article on
-HTML&lt;/cite>, HTML is defined in formal specifications that were
-developed and published throughout the 1990s.&lt;/p></pre>
+   <pre>&lt;p>And then &lt;b>Ian&lt;/b> said &lt;q>this might be right, in a
+gossip column, maybe!&lt;/q>.&lt;/p></pre>
 
   </div>
 
@@ -8342,6 +8419,19 @@
   <code>blockquote</code> and <code>q</code> elements in certain cases
   described in the definitions of those elements.</p>
 
+  <div class="example">
+
+   <p>This next example shows the use of <code>cite</code> alongside
+   <code>blockquote</code>:</p>
+
+   <pre>&lt;p>His next piece was the aptly named &lt;cite>Sonnet 130&lt;/cite>:&lt;/p>
+&lt;blockquote>
+  &lt;p>My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun,&lt;br>
+  Coral is far more red, than her lips red,
+  ...</pre>
+
+  </div>
+
 
   <h4>The <dfn><code>em</code></dfn> element</h4>
 
@@ -8746,6 +8836,23 @@
 
   </div>
 
+<!--
+> One useful line of retreat would be to specify that in the following
+> code, "the state of being happy" is unambiguously a definition of
+> "happiness" and not of any other subset of the <dt>.
+>
+>     <dl>
+>       <dt><dfn>happiness</dfn> /'h&aelig; p. nes/ <i><abbr>n.</abbr></i></dt>
+>       <dd>the state of being happy</dd>
+>     </dl>
+>
+> This could be encouraged by "dt dfn {font-weight: bold; font-style:
+> normal;}" in browsers' default style sheets, which would be quite
+> backward-compatible because of the rarity of <dt><dfn> up to now.
+- mpt
+-->
+
+
 
   <h4>The <dfn><code>abbr</code></dfn> element</h4>
 
@@ -41485,6 +41592,7 @@
       link: click
       mark: skip to next mark element
       title attribute: tooltip
+      cite attribute on q, blockquote, ins, del: on hover, show link
       ...
 
     Define how to determine what element is under the cursor, unless
Comment 1 Henri Sivonen 2008-03-03 18:39:45 CET
*** Bug 121 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 2 Henri Sivonen 2008-03-05 15:11:54 CET
No machine checkable stuff.