Re: @quotation and @indentedblock in html and DocBook

[Mahlon]

On 18 Dec. Gavin wrote:

What @example, @display, etc., have in common with @indentedblock is

that they should be indented, and that they are currently indented

with CSS instead of being put in a <blockquote>. If we want to avoid

relying on CSS when possible then we should consider using

<blockquote> for these other commands as well.

Hi,

I agree with Karl on the issue of broadening the use of <blockquote> for indentation. The strength of having several block types is that each block type has its special characteristics: Indentation, font type inheritance/replacement, preformatting, font size. Maintaining this flexibility with wider use of the <blockquote> would necessarily mean deeper <div><style><span> nesting which could get complex.

Screen readers are fragile (not very robust in handling minor differences) and not very standardized in what they do, so I'd recommend moving slowly in making changes to the HTML output primary to accommodate screen readers.

In contrast, individual documentors can change the displayed data through CSS to accommodate the needs of the user, a larger base font size for instance, or forcing sans-serif for easier character recognition.

Mahlon

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