Use <s> for strikethrough, not <del>

[ellatrix]

Description

The s element falls under text-level semantics, just like bold and italic.

The s element represents contents that are no longer accurate or no longer relevant.

The s element is not appropriate when indicating document edits; to mark a span of text as having been removed from a document, use the del element.

In this example a recommended retail price has been marked as no longer relevant as the product in question has a new sale price.

<p>Buy our Iced Tea and Lemonade!</p>
<p><s>Recommended retail price: $3.99 per bottle</s></p>
<p><strong>Now selling for just $2.99 a bottle!</strong></p>

https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/text-level-semantics.html#the-s-element

The ins and del elements represent edits to the document.

The ins and del element are meant to be used together. They also share the same attribute spec (cite and datetime).

The del element represents a removal from the document.

del elements should not cross implied paragraph boundaries.

The following shows a "to do" list where items that have been done are crossed-off with the date and time of their completion.

<h1>To Do</h1>
<ul>
 <li>Empty the dishwasher</li>
 <li><del datetime="2009-10-11T01:25-07:00">Watch Walter Lewin's lectures</del></li>
 <li><del datetime="2009-10-10T23:38-07:00">Download more tracks</del></li>
 <li>Buy a printer</li>
</ul>

https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/edits.html#the-del-element

What about other editors?

• TinyMCE has always used inline styles for it. It was WordPress that mapped it to the del element.
• CKEditor uses the s element. Some interesting discussion.
• Someone from CKEditor put together a table of what elements are used for different formats in a bunch of editors.

Thoughts?

How has this been tested?

Screenshots

Types of changes

Checklist:

• My code is tested.
• My code follows the WordPress code style.
• My code follows the accessibility standards.
• My code has proper inline documentation.
• I've included developer documentation if appropriate.

[aduth]

The semantics strike me as being correct justification, yes 👍

[youknowriad]

Is there a way to provide a "deprecated" version :P or away to support previous content :) (to be able to untoggle them). I don't consider this critical but thought I'd ask.

[ellatrix]

@youknowriad No, there isn't at the moment. A button cannot be assigned to two formats. I think it's fine since strikethrough is a much lesser used format, and you can still remove it in HTML view.

Perhaps we should consider adding a "clear formatting" button at some point which could clear all known and unknown formatting.

[youknowriad]

Yes, It's fine for me but we can think about it if we notice this pattern of changing formats more. Let's move forward.

[ellatrix]

Yeah, I agree if we'd want to change bold or italic. Speaking of which, let me check who uses i and em. This is a much tougher choice, I think it's ok to get leave it as is.

[ellatrix]

Ugh, I now just realise that we should update paste.