Which one do you prefer?

[Turtle91]

A QUOTE, Jon.... stop equating Visual presentation with semantics....

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

A QUOTE, Jon.... stop equating Visual presentation with semantics....

I'm trying to figure out how you'd communicate offset text to a TTS.

[Turtle91]

You don't. That's up to the author to provide in the text:

<p>They read the tavern sign:</p>
<div class="sign"> - Wonky Willies - </div>
<p>With nothing negative to note, they continued inside.</p>

You wouldn't want, or expect, the TTS to say "quote" before reading the sign...it would just read the sign.

An epigraph may, or may not, need a "quote" in front of it. If it doesn't, use a div.

<div class="epi">
<p>From the Dawn of Time we came</p>
<p>Moving silently down through the centuries</p>
<p>Living many secret lives</p>
<p>Struggling to reach the time of the gathering</p>
<p>When the few who remain will struggle to the last</p>
</div>

<blockquote>
<p>From the Dawn of Time we came</p>
<p>Moving silently down through the centuries</p>
<p>Living many secret lives</p>
<p>Struggling to reach the time of the gathering</p>
<p>When the few who remain will struggle to the last</p>
<p class="sig">~ <cite>Juan Sanches Villa-Lobos</cite></p>
</blockquote>

Offset text is a visual presentation....anything can be offset/styled visually...... If it is not a quote, use a div and css to style the visual offset/color/font/border/background/etc.

If it is a quote of someone external to the narrator (-ish) that you would say "quote" or use airquotes, or in some meaningful way indicate to the reader that it is a quote of another person - and it is a long quote - then use blockquote. If it is a short quote then you can just incorporate that into the flow of the paragraphs (not offset) and use quote symbols and/or the <q> tag.

<p>A great movie line was said by a young William Wallace in Braveheart (1995): 
<q>“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”</q></p>

That would not need the TTS to say "Quote" before reading because it is in the flow of the text.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by icearch

So which one do you prefer in the content of code integrity and easy for maintenance?

BLOCKQUOTE has semantic meaning, while DIV is just a container element.

In other words, don't use BLOCKQUOTE just to indent, change margins, etc. If that's all you want to do, then use DIV.

OTOH, if the contents of the container really is a quote, then BLOCKQUOTE is the right choice.