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Standards advocates have coined the phrase “Plain Old Semantic HTML,” or
POSH, as a mnemonic term to encapsulate the idea of using HTML as it was
originally intended: to present information so that it conveys meaning and
significance to the reader as well as the reader agent.
So what does that mean for you? It means that you must remember and
practice the key concept: semantics over presentation. You’ve heard the
term “separating presentation from content” before, right? It simply means
making sure the markup that creates visual effects, but lends no meaning to
the structure of the document, is stripped out and put into a style sheet.
To support separating content from presentation, you need to use your tags
for their meaning, not for how you would like them rendered by the browser.
Thi nk of usi ng t he correct tags t o convey meani ng as addi ng t he ri ght i nt onation
and facial expressions when you talk. Proper semantics are the key to
getting the point across with HTML documents.
For example, while the following code snippet is syntactically correct (there
are no actual errors), from a semantics standpoint it needs major help:
<p>Greatest Detectives of All Times</p>
<p>These have proven to be some of the best detectives to read and
learn from in literature.</p>
<p>Sherlock Holmes<br>
Encyclopedia Brown<br>
Hercule Poirot<br>
The CSS Detective</p>
What’s wrong with it? Th ere is no indication of what the elements are in
relationship to each other, and what they truly are themselves. With the
corrected snippet, you can clearly see their identities and the code hierarchy.
<h1>Greatest Detectives of All Times</h1>
<p>These have proven to be some of the best detectives to read and
learn from in literature.</p>
<ol>
<li>Sherlock Holmes</li>
<li>Encyclopedia Brown</li>
<li>Hercule Poirot</li>
<li>The CSS Detective</li>
</ol>
And trust me, it is truly a boon for both you and your markup. Your HTML
will be easier to read, you will be able to better control the visual display, and
you will be that much farther on the road to becoming not only a CSS detective,
but a CSS pro.
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