git ssb

title: "New Elements in HTML 5" date: 2008-04-01 11:56 status: published description: > A quick look at a couple of the new elements in the new version of HTML.

tags: HTML, HTML 5, web standards

links:

• url: http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/
  title: "The HTML 5 Specification" rel: related type: text/html

<p><abbr class="caps" title="Hypertext Markup Language version 5">HTML 5</abbr> has been in development for a good few years now. In addition to clarifying a lot of grey areas in previous versions of the <abbr title="specification">spec</abbr>, and changing a few definitions to reflect real-world use, it also introduces a few new elements. Here's a quick look at some of the more interesting ones.</p>

<h2>The <code>í</code> element</h2>

<p><abbr class="caps">HTML</abbr> 5 redefines the <code>i</code> element, which <em>was</em> purely presentational and denoted anything that looked vaguely slanty, as representing <q cite="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/section-text-level.html#i">a span of text in an alternate voice or mood, or otherwise offset from the normal prose, such as a taxonomic designation, a technical term, an idiomatic phrase from another language, a thought, a ship name, or some other prose whose typical typographic presentation is italicized</q>.</p>

<p>Note <q cite="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/section-text-level.html#i">typical</q>: the contents of an <code>i</code> element don't actually <em>have</em> to be displayed in italics.</p>

<p>In light of this, the spec also introduces the <code>í</code> element (note the acute accent), which represents <q>a really, really italic bit of text</q>; it adds that <q>user agents <strong>should</strong> render text within an <code>í</code> element with <a href="http://www.asmithillustration.com/news-whoosh.html">a dynamic ‘whoosh!’ effect</a></q>.</p>

<h2>The <code>spam</code> element</h2>

<p><abbr class="caps">HTML</abbr> 4 introduced the <code>span</code> element, which represents a generic run of text. It's used all over the place in <abbr class="caps">HTML</abbr>, as a semantically correct way to mark up absolutely anything just for fun.</p>

<p><abbr class="caps">HTML</abbr> 5 corrects a typo in the <abbr class="caps">HTML</abbr> 4 spec and renames this element to <code>spam</code>.</p>