Posted by dorayme on 02/02/07 00:59

In article <g%uwh.1898$fS2.53@reader1.news.saunalahti.fi>,
"Jukka K. Korpela" <jkorpela@cs.tut.fi> wrote:

> The best workaround is to put the numbers into the item contents and to use
> <ul> without bullets.

Indeed, it looks a reasonable solution.

> (<ul> is illogical,...

Whether it is quite illogical or not depends on the details of
how to interpret the notion of ol and ul. How to interpret the
use of it in any particular context. I say it is not a simple
matter.

Presumably the ideal of an ordered list is one where the order
matters greatly as in an algorithm.

Presumably an unordered list is one where the order does not
matter greatly in terms of the meaning as in a shopping list
given to the husband by a wife who expects it to be completely
implemented without any excuses!

But these are ideals that do not quite fit many real life
situations.

The team for today is... All boys must ensure the correct
numbered football shirt....

might be ordered by shirt number or surname or not at all. In
fact, there is a choice and the ultimate usefulness of the
information is independent of the ordering or non ordering. Each
boy must see the number for himself and get the right shirt. It
may assist the boys to order the list. How far this assistance
has a semantic import seems to me not to be like the case of the
algorithm or the ordering of a DNA sequence or other things where
order is crucial.

In an unordered list, no item has to be where it is, if it were
elsewhere, no one would misunderstand anything.

But unordered lists are inescapably ordered in time or position,
there is a first... and last item. It could be different and it
might not matter, but there is some de facto ordering by the list
maker. The purpose of an ordered list might be to give a handle
to readers who wish to refer to one item conveniently. In a way
it does not matter what order is given as long as some order is
and for a purpose other than to give meaning. This could well be
accomplished by an unordered list with markers inside the list
item, numbers or whatever.

I will stop babbling now, but I don't think your suggestion is so
clearly illogical. We would need to know more about the context
in which the OP is using it. I was a little dismayed that you
left out your usual good advice about the importance of
supplying a url.

--
dorayme

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