<b> versus <strong>

[Twey]

Still makes no difference in how it looks (b vs. strong).

Depends on the browser. <b> can be rendered only one way: its contents must be bold (unless otherwise stated in a stylesheet). <strong>, however, can be represented any way that will convey strong emphasis: underline, bold, italics, louder in a screen reader, more prominent for a Braille device...

Why give people the choice when it is more likely that they will choose incorrectly or simply not use it at all due to there being too many choices available?

Because the people who wrote web pages originally were under the impression that the people who would write them in the future would know the specification inside out. This, as it turns out, was slightly optimistic of them.

[jscheuer1]

This, as it turns out, was slightly optimistic of them.

LOL. Slightly?

This is where I came in and so is where I am often 'coming from'. Folks just want things to work and cannot be bothered with minutia. However, I have this oddball part of me the likes minutia (to a point) and an understanding of it can contribute to making things work.

I think we already established elsewhere though that, if one were to devote one's time to completely grasping all of the periodically changing/updating and new standards involved in web design and its many, many optional facets, there would be little or no time left for anything else.

[Twey]

I think we already established elsewhere though that, if one were to devote one's time to completely grasping all of the periodically changing/updating and new standards involved in web design and its many, many optional facets, there would be little or no time left for anything else.

Well, yes, but it is possible (example: Mike). Even we humans can get a reasonable grasp on things by understanding the basic principles behind these changes. Semantic markup is one of those.

[techno_race]

To most people, there's no difference. I vote <strong>. <b> is deprecated. Probably because screen readers simply ignore it. For emphasis, you want <em> (which usually renders the same as <i>)

If you were to write the above in HTML, it would be:

To most people, there's no difference. I vote &lt;strong&gt;. &lt;b&gt; is deprecated. Probably because screen readers simply ignore it. For emphasis, you want &lt;em&gt; (which <em>usually</em> renders the same as &lt;i&gt;)

and NOT

To most people, there's no difference. I vote &lt;strong&gt;. &lt;b&gt; is deprecated. Probably because screen readers simply ignore it. For emphasis, you want &lt;em&gt; (which <i>usually</i> renders the same as &lt;i&gt;)