Re: HTML Display - Text Formatting, Background, and Graphics

wmperry@spry.com
Mon, 14 Nov 94 10:20:15 EST

Samuel Marshall writes:
>
> I have just looked at the draft HTML 2.0 specification, and I'd like to
> suggest some extra features that could maybe be included in 2.1 or 3.0 or
> whatever.
>
> I hope I sent this to the right place. If not, sorry for wasting your time.
>
> These are cosmetic document formatting features.
>
> 1. Superscript and subscript

This was in HTML+ at one point, so odds are that it will be in 3.0. The
tags were a little different than what you are proposing though <sub></sub>
and <sup></sup>.

> 2. Specifiable page background colour

Personally, I think this should go in stylesheets, and by the time 2.1 or
3.0 gets ready to go, hopefully we can have a reference implementation of
style sheets done.

> 3. JPEG inline graphics

This should not be part of the HTML specification. If a browser can
accept inlined XXXX, then it should send them in the accept headers when
requesting an inlined image/text/whatever. The current description of
<img> makes no reference to what it can include, and I think it should stay
this way.

> 4. Specifying margins and justification

Justification at least was already in the HTML+ spec, with the 'align'
attribute on various tags (p, h[1-6], etc). Valid values were
center|right|left|justify|indent - any others needed?

I don't think the ability to specify margins was ever in HTML+, and
again I think that should be part of the stylesheet mechanism. But then,
group consensus will decide. :)

With regards to justification, Chris Wilson and I were talking about how
to do alignment without the full paragraph break inherent in a <p> or <h?>
tag. We came up with the idea for an <align></align> tag, with a ROLE
attribute, that can be center|right|left|justify|indent, just like the
align tag on <p> and <h?>. I mentioned this to eric bina in chicago as an
alternative to the <center></center> tag, since it is much more extensible.
Wouldn't want to have to have <right></right>, <justify></justify>, and
<indent></indent>. :)

I'm not sure if I'm quite up to contributing a DTD chunk for this tag,
but I can try if nobody else jumps forward to do it when we get 2.1
rolling.

-Bill P.