[html4all] a 'who' element

[Robert J Burns]

Hi Leif,

I saw your thread about the 'cite' and 'who' elements[1]. I  
particularly like the 'who' suggestion. In crafting HTML 4.1 I was  
working to disentangle citation (of a work) from attribution (to an  
person or other entity). However the terms attribution and attribute  
are too overloaded in English. I think a 'who' element would fit the  
bill nicely. I also had suggested a 'pn' element for proper nouns or  
personal nouns.

Another important thing to consider in your suggestion is that we have  
attributes as well as elements. And I think the 'cite' attribute has  
got to be universalized (and maybe a universal 'who' attribute too).  
In this way a 'cite' attribute can be added to any element and the  
element and all its descendants (until overridden) are marked up as a  
citation of the URI referenced in the 'cite' attribute.

Similarly a 'who' attribute could serve as a way to attribute ideas to  
a person. These are two different functions. A person may have said  
something (like Truman in your example), but that is not the same  
thing as a citation that allows a reader to track down and verify the  
idea or quotation. The citation may be Truman (<cite>in a private  
conversation</cite>) but that is still distinct from the attribution  
to Truman. So I think these two functions need to be disentangled, but  
as usual the Ian Hickson approach is simply to lop off a necessary  
function to “simplify” things. Leaving authors to misuse and abuse  
other mechanisms for the fundamental functionality they need from a  
markup language.

Take care,
Rob

[1]: <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Sep/0495.html>