cites for blockquotes

[Jason Clark]

On Mar 18, 2004, at 10:13 PM, John Gruber wrote:

> The "em-dash followed by attribution" strikes me as something very
> different than a blockquote `cite` attribute. I look at the above,
> and it looks to me like something like this (not Markdown- or even
> proposed-Markdown-formatted):
>
>     They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
>     temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
>
>     --Benjamin Franklin
>
> In other words, attributing the quote to someone in a way where the
> attribution is clearly intended to be part of the displayed text.
>

I'd like to see somthing like this:

 > They that can give up essential libery to obtain a little
 > temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety
 >
 > --Benjamin Franklin

Generate something like this:

     <blockquote>
         <p>They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
         temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.</p>

         <p>--<cite>Benjamin Franklin</cite></p>
     </blockquote>

If you have a URI you wish to put in the cite attrib of the blockquote, 
that could also be indicated:

<http://url.example.com/franklin_sez/>:
 > etc
 > etc
 > --attribution

I think this is a valid application of the <cite> element, and 
"--attribution" is a common plaintext idiom.

Jason Clark <jason at jclark.org>
http://jclark.org/weblog/