comments on 11/16 version ,section 2

Keith Ball (kball@kballuw.SJF.Novell.COM)
Fri, 18 Nov 94 14:22:05 EST

>From my reading of the overview section of the spec (section 2), I
have difficulty seeing the value of it beyond a list of all the html
elements. If thats its sole purpose, then it should be renamed to
a list of the elements. If it is to remain an overview, I would
expect it to cover more information about the intention and usage of
html. The opening paragraphs are a little sparse on information that would be
useful for someone reading about HTML without having some SGML
knowledge up front.

Here are some suggested changes for the section to help, I hope. I
have just written them, instead of trying to describe what needs to
be said.

1) new second para

HTML describes the structure and organization of a document. It only
suggests appropriate presentations of the document when processed.

2) rewrite of last para

Every HTML document starts with a HTML document identifier which contains
two sections, a head and a body. The head contains HTML elements which
describe the documents title, usage and relationship with other documents.
The body contains other HTML elements with the entire text and graphics
of the document.

This overview briefly describes the syntax of HTML elements and
provides an example HTML document.

----
Also, The HTML, HEAD, and BODY elements are lost in the block
formatting section. They need to be highlighted more as document
structure elements. It may make it more obvious there relevance
or importance.

How about another subsection 2.1.xx Document Structure Elements
that contains

HTML Identifier
... The HTML Identifer defines the document as containing HTML elements. It contains only the HEAD and BODY elements. Head ... The Head element contains HTML elements that describe the documents title, usage and relationship with other documents. Body ... The Body element contains the text and its associated HTML elements of the document. The Document's Title The document's text. --- Other comments - Horizontal rule doesnt appear correctly and the example says the same thing as the description. How about

some text

some more text

- Paragraph: shouldnt the example use

as a container with

, especially since the end tag is included in the description. - Bold: the second sentence implies actions allowable when processed. Why not say "Suggests the rendering of the text in boldface, if available." The same could go for . - TypeType: is this Tele-type or Typewriter? - section 2.1.5 Image Element Why are all the attributes included? Just describe the element. "Inserts the referenced graphic image into the document at the location where the element occurs." ----- Form elements: it would be useful if the text for each element described the purpose and types of objects supported by the element. - Form: "Form contains elements defining user input controls and descriptive text to be displayed when the document is processed. - Input: Does it have a closing tag? The example does not show one. "The Input element defines several user input controls within a form: a checkbox, a push button, a radio button, and text input fields (edit box)." - Option: remove the ending clause in the last sentence: "It represents one choice." - Select: a description: "Select provides a list of choices." - Textarea: "Textarea defines a multi-line text entry input control. It contains the initial text contents of the control." ----- Character Data in HTML What does the "Graphic" mean in the first sub-heading? All it describes are character ref entities for < > &. I hope this is helpful and not bothersome. Keith ----------------------------------------- Keith Ball Unix/SMTP mail: kball@novell.com Building 1 MHS mail: KBALL@NOVELL 2180 Fortune Drive San Jose Fortune (sjf.novell.com) (408) 577 8428 Fax: (408) 577 5855 Novell, Inc. -- sent via the LAN WorkPlace Mailer