Re: Is there any reason not to use <EM> for items emphasized with .Em?

["Anthony J. Bentley" <anthony@cathet.us>]

Hi Ingo,

Ingo Schwarze writes:
> i think this is an improvement but feel like knowing too little
> about HTML to just go ahead and commit.  Can either of you (or
> somebody else who feels at home with HTML) provide an OK?

I thought this would be a dead simple decision, but my email draft keeps
getting more and more complicated!

There are three HTML elements that could conceivably make sense here:
<i>, <em>, and <strong>.

mdoc(7):
"Denotes text that should be emphasised.  Note that this is a presentation
term and should not be used for stylistically decorating technical terms.
Depending on the output device, this is usually represented using an
italic font or underlined characters."

Based on this description, <i> would make the most sense. (Essentially,
I read it as being a straight equivalent to man(7)'s I macro.)

http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/text-level-semantics.html#the-i-element

mdoc(7):
Examples:
      .Em Warnings!
      .Em Remarks:

Based on these examples, <strong> would make the most sense.

http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element

Note that in the HTML world, <strong> is considered to be a semantic
element (unlike <i>). In practice, browsers display <strong> in boldface
but the standard would allow italics here because it is considered a
semantic element.

(As an aside, there are many uses of Sy in OpenBSD manpages like "Note:"
and "Important:". Based on mdoc(7) that seems to be misuse of
presentational macros.)

The third possible element is <em> itself. <em>'s raison d'être is
emphasis, such as most situations where you would use italics in prose
(although one exception would be "raison d'être" itself, which as a
foreign language idiom would be marked up with <i>...).

http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/text-level-semantics.html#the-em-element

Honestly? I think this is just hair-splitting and we should use <em>
for Em. But if we do that, mdoc(7) probably should be revised for clarity.

-- 
Anthony J. Bentley

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