Re: simple HTML list considered harmful
montulli@stat1.cc.ukans.edu (Lou Montulli)
From: montulli@stat1.cc.ukans.edu (Lou Montulli)
Message-id: <9309291639.AA26499@stat1.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: simple HTML list considered harmful
To: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 93 11:39:56 CDT
In-reply-to: <9309290902.AA22253@manuel.hpl.hp.com>; from "Dave_Raggett" at Sep 29, 93 10:02 am
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL2]
>
> Some of your have mentioned the <BR> (line break) tag as a solution to
> Kevin's problem of how to layout postal addresses in a proportional font.
>
> Many people have suggested that <BR> isn't quite right during the WWW workshop
> and in subsequent discussions. Would anyone object to the proposal to replace
> it with the <L> tag which acts as a container for the following line, e.g.
>
> With slight simplifications, this would be defined by:
>
> <!ELEMENT P - O (L+ | %text;)>
> <!ATTLIST P id ID #IMPLIED>
>
> <!ELEMENT L - O (%text;)>
> <!ATTLIST L id ID #IMPLIED>
>
> e.g. for Kevin's purpose:
>
> <P>
> <L>First Last
> <L>Address line 1
> <L>Address line 2
> <L>City, State, Zip
> <L>Phone
> <L>Fax
> <L>email
>
> <L> is cleaner than <BR> since:
>
> a) Each line of text is contained by the preceding <L>
> whereas <BR> acted as a line separator. Thus <P> and <L>
> use the same model and are a better fit with SGML practice
>
> b) <L> allows you to identify each line explicitly, e.g. for
> hypertext links or other cross references
>
> I will have the new draft for HTML+ as a discussion paper within a few days,
> and would very much like peoples views and suggestions on this and other
> topics.
>
Ok, lets see if I understand this correctly. Someone asks me how to
get a linebreak in the middle of a paragraph without puting in an
extra space. So I tell them to put in two <L>'s, one at the
beginning of the paragraph and one at the point of break:
<para>
<l>This is an example paragraph. This is an example paragraph.
This is an example paragraph. This is an example paragraph.
This is an example paragraph. This is an example paragraph.
I want a break after this line.
<l>There was a break right before this line. This has been
an example paragraph.</para>
If I was a normal user (at times I consider myself normal), I would
find this completely insane. When I want to do a linebreak I put
in a linebreak tag, it should be as simple as that.
Many of you will say that this won't matter once we have WYSIWYG editors,
but 'I don't see no editors', and I have the feeling I never will.
:lou
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