[thelist] skipping 'hx' levels is bad

[rudy]

>Like aard said,
>
><h2>wrapup</h2>
><p>comments</p>
>
>Simple! Even in print, where structure can be demonstrated visually
>without the use of headers, you'd want to demarcate that wrapup as such.

could you please reconcile "without the use of headers" and "demarcate"

see, that's my whole point (and i think liorean alluded to this) -- you
cannot demarcate content as "belonging" to certain headers because the
markup language does not associate content with headers, headers are just
inserted into or "interleaved" within the content, much like a couple of
jokers shuffled into a deck of cards

so in order for me to "demarcate" that the wrapup doesn't belong to moe, i
am "forced" to insert a heading?

feh

and why does it have to be an h2?  why couldn't it be an h3?

see, you guys with your rigid, hierarchical thinking, you automatically
assume that an h3 is "under" an h2, but that is *NOT* the case at all

each of the h2's in the example given -- and all the p's too, for that
matter!! -- are "under" the body, all at the same level!!

to me, it is not a hierarchy, but a question of IMPORTANCE -- the wrapup h3
is not as important as the h2's

the w3c says

    "There are six levels of headings in HTML with H1 as
     the most important and H6 as the least. Visual browsers usually
     render more important headings in larger fonts than less important
ones.

i'm sorry, but this appeals to me a *lot* more than the rigid, hierarchical
interpretation of the role of hx headers as demarcations of nested content

if headers did imply nesting, then we might more properly have

    <h1 titletext="stooges">
      <p>introductory comments, a page and a half</p>
      <h2 titletext="curly">
          <p>stuff about curly</p>
      </h2>
      <h2 titletext="larry">
          <p>stuff about larry</p>
      </h2>
      <h2 titletext="moe">
          <p>stuff about moe</p>
      </h2>
      <p>wrapup comments</p>
    </h1>

which clearly demarcates which content belongs to which headers, but we
don't

maybe it calls for a whole bunch of nested divs?  like in the w3c example?
feh

the w3c also says

   "Some people consider skipping heading levels to be bad practice.
    They accept H1 H2 H1 while they do not accept H1 H3 H1 since the
    heading level H2 is skipped."

i have seen them use a lot stronger language when they want authors to
observe a particular practice -- i'd say they were leaving it up to us

i know that syntax versus semantics, form versus function, and style versus
content all have "gray" areas where there is substantial overlap

but i just don't buy the argument that heading tags must follow a strict
hierarchical structure with no "gaps" in the heading numbers, because i
have not yet heard a compelling argument for it

> Yeah, you probably have issues you with Strunck & White, too, don't you?
> Troublemaker.

strunk

i prefer fowler, actually

;o)


rudy