why is formatted_date.pt using html tag abbr?

[sunew]

formatted_date.pt is using markup like this:
<abbr class="dtstart"
This renders in Chrome like:

(Double-dashed underline)

The cursor (in Chrome) is changed to a question mark.

Why use abbr in this case? It does not seem right to me.
"The HTML element represents an abbreviation or acronym " (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/abbr)

I can see the code is originating from @thet - perhaps you can answer the question?

[sunew]

Same formatting and cursor on hover in Firefox.

[sunew]

See also http://microformats.org/wiki/abbr-design-pattern

[sunew]

So: perhaps we should

1. change the markup
   or
2. style it, so it does not show the dashed underline and the question mark cursor on hover

Any opinions on this?

[thet]

@sunew doesn't seem right to me either. I can't remember why I have done it that way.
I'm +1 for changing the markup, as the markup should be correct. We should probably change it to a <time> element: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/time

[sunew]

I did a little research, and I think a while back it was common to use abbr for some microformats use cases (I did not go into the details... ).

+1 for the time element.
But there is an issue with support in IE ? as described here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/time