CSS { In Real Life } | I’ve Been Doing Blockquotes Wrong

It’s pretty easy to write bad HTML, because for most developers there are no consequences. If you write some bad Javascript, your application will probably crash and you or your users will get a horrible error message. It’s like a flashing light above your head telling the world you’ve done something bad. At the very least you’ll feel like a prize chump. HTML fails silently. Write bad HTML and maybe it means someone who doesn’t browse the web in exactly the same way as you do doesn’t get access to the information they need. But maybe you still get your pay rise and bonus.

So it’s frustrating to see the importance of learning HTML dismissed time and time again.

Quotebacks

This looks like a nifty tool for blogs:

Quotebacks is a tool that makes it easy to grab snippets of text from around the web and convert them into embeddable blockquote web components.

Eric’s Archived Thoughts: Grid-Powered Drop Quotes

I’ve been digging into CSS Grid a lot during the past week, so this post from Eric is very timely. On the surface it looks like a fairly simple use case but as you read through the explanation, it starts to become clear that the underlying thinking could be used in a lot of situations.

And, yes, like Eric, I too have been bitten by the Grid bug:

I’m working on my first redesign in a dozen years. If that doesn’t give you some sense of the power of Grid, well, I just don’t know what will.

cite and blockquote – reloaded | HTML5 Doctor

The definition of the cite element (and the blockquote element) has been changed for the better in HTML5 …at least in the W3C version anyway.

Bruce Lawson’s personal site  : On citing quotations. Again.

The semantics of the cite element are up for discussion again. Bruce, like myself, still thinks that we should be allowed to mark up names with the cite element (as per HTML 4), and also that cite elements should be allowed inside blockquotes to indicate the source of the quote.

Let’s pave that cowpath.

[whatwg] The blockquote element spec vs common quoting practices

I’m getting behind Oli’s proposal to allow non-quoted footers within blockquotes in HTML. Here’s where I quote the design principles to support his case.

Examples of blockquote metadata ❧ Oli.jp (@boblet)

Now this is how you make progress on getting changes made to a spec: by documenting real-world use cases.

Quoting and citing with blockquote, q, cite, and the cite attribute | HTML5 Doctor

An excellent article from Oli on markup patterns for quotations …though I still think that the cite element can be used for people’s names.