Re: id attributes for header elements

[Per Bothner]

On 12/26/21 09:30, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 25, 2021 at 02:10:29PM -0800, Per Bothner wrote:
> > Two requests:
> > (1) Don't generates the implicit id="Electron-1" when it immediately follows
> > an explicit id="Electron".
>
> I do not think that it is a good idea, the @anchor anchor and id should
> stay different from the @node, or section @-command id and anchor.  It
> is better to keep it, but it would probably be even better to have a
> class to make it possible to select @anchor generated anchors.

Maybe - is there a use-case for this?

> > (2) Add the id attribute to the <h4> element rather than generate an empty 
> > <span> node.
>
> I did something along those lines, but not when there is a header, in
> order to keep the anchor before the header, as it was agreed, long ago
> that having the anchor before the header was better for navigation.

I don't remember, and I don't see how it could be better for navigation..
I don't see any particular use for being able to distinguish referenes
generated by @anchor from others.

However, since @anchor can be anywhere (including the middle of paragraphs),
there is an argument from simplicity and consistency for just using an empty 
<span>.
Though note that best practices for (hard-written) HTML would be to place
the id to a semantically meaning element.

Regardless, the implicit id that is generated for a heading command belongs
on the header element.  I.e. for

@anchor{Electron}
@subheading Electron

we should at least do:

<span id="Electron"></span><h4 id="Electron-1" class="subheading">Electron</h4>

Since id="Electron-1" is directly generated by the @subheading, it makes sense
to put the id attribute be on the generated h4 element.
--
        --Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/