unordered lists in HTML2.0
eduardo@oclc.org (Eduardo Gutentag)
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 94 19:24:14 EDT
Message-id: <9407131805.AA11388@rug.Eng.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: html-ig@oclc.org
Originator: html-ig@oclc.org
Sender: html-ig@oclc.org
Precedence: bulk
From: eduardo@oclc.org (Eduardo Gutentag)
To: Multiple recipients of list <html-ig@oclc.org>
Subject: unordered lists in HTML2.0
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
X-Comment: HTML Implementation Group (Private)
At the risk of being accused of heresy and corruption of the soul, I'd
like to propose a change to the DTD to deal differently with ordered
and unordered lists. I apologize in advance if this has been discussed
prior to my joining the group, and I apologize doubly if it was
discussed after I joined it. I could not find any reference to this in
my mail, but that sometimes doesn't mean much ;-)
Specifically, I'd like for the DTD to allow lists with no LI required.
Justification: The HTML 2.0 DTD is supposed to reflect current usage.
The use of LI-less lists to accomplish a degree of indentation not
offered by other elements is common current usage. This is particularly
needed, but not exclusively, when writing conversion tools from
existing authoring packages to HTML. In my own experience writing a
Frame to HTML conversion tool, I have encountered many instances where
the difference between Frame tags (e.g. Para and ParaIndent in our
in-house templates) is just a matter of indentation, and ignoring the
indentation muddles the sense of the original (in terms of paragraph
subordination, importance, etc.) Furthermore, there is no current way
to indicate whether the listing order is to be expressed in terms of 1,
i, I, A or a. A conversion tool should be able to take the original
and produce the following as an acceptable HTML fragment:
<OL>1. This is the first item<BR>
2. This is the second<OL>a. This is a second level</OL></OL>
A DTD that allows this would reassure those who are currently
using this indentation method when converting to HTML thousands of
existing documents that any browser that later on claims HTML 2.0
compliance would display their (compliant) documents correctly. As far
as I know both Mosaic and lynx do it now, and there may be other
browsers that do it too.
Proposal:
Change
<!ELEMENT (%list) - - (LI)+>
to
<!ELEMENT (%list) - - (%flow | LI)*>
Change
<P>The opening list tag may be any of <A
NAME="UL.index">UL</A>, <A NAME="OL.index">OL</A>,
<A NAME="MENU.index">MENU</A> or <A
NAME="DIR.index">DIR</A>. It must be immediately followed by
the first list element. ^^^^
to
<P>The opening list tag may be any of <A
NAME="UL.index">UL</A>, <A NAME="OL.index">OL</A>,
<A NAME="MENU.index">MENU</A> or <A
NAME="DIR.index">DIR</A>. It may be immediately followed by
the first list element. ^^^
*******************************************************************************
Eduardo Gutentag Sun Microsystems Inc (SunSoft)
AnswerBook Publishing/Online Information
e-mail: eduardo@eng.Sun.COM
Phone: (415) 336-6916
fax: (415) 336-4449 (e-mail notification please)
2550 Garcia Ave, MTV19-106, Mountain View, CA, 94043-1100
*******************************************************************************