Re: WWWWW Notes

Dave_Raggett <dsr@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
From: Dave_Raggett <dsr@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
Message-id: <9308170955.AA17227@manuel.hpl.hp.com>
Subject: Re: WWWWW Notes
To: sanders@bsdi.com
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 93 10:55:10 BST
Cc: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Mailer: Elm [revision: 66.36.1.1]
Status: RO

WWWWW comments on the current version of the HTML+ spec.
-------------------------------------------------------

In Tony Sanders' reply to Steve Heaney, Tony ends up with:

> When we talk about presentation in HTML+ we are mostly talking about tables
> and external graphical image layout (e.g., gif's).  Someone should make
> a list of the presentation like elements in HTML+.

Here is a list of presentation features in HTML+ along with my feelings
for what might be done to improve things.

Headers:

The margin attribute in headers signifying that the header should be left
justified in the left margin.

Emphasis:

This is perhaps overloaded, and too far over in the direction of brevity.

    b           bold
    i           italic
    u           underline
    s           strikethru  (a newcomer)
    tt          fix pitch font
    tr          serif font
    hv          sans serif font
    sup         superscript
    sub         subscript

**** I am thinking about having superscript and subscript as separate tags.
**** Also to use a face=serif {serif, sans, fixed) for font face for which
**** the choices are mutually exclusive

Paragraphs:

    align       left, center or right
    indent      (missing an ability to specify the level)

**** how about allowing indent=3 to indicate the level of indentation.
**** Or perhaps indent=none (default), {same, more, less} ?

Preformatted text:

    tr          serif font
    hv          sans serif font
    width       optimisation for selecting font size

    tabs        an element to make it easier to import
                documents in other formats, e.g. man pages

**** treat fonts in same way as emphasis. Preformatted text exists in HTML
**** only because there is no other suitable external format, supporting links

Ordered Lists:

    compact     this attribute implies a more compact form of list

**** Perhaps we ought to copy DocBook's rendering hints for selecting
**** numbers, roman numerals, upper or lower case letters ?

Unordered Lists:

    compact     this attribute implies a more compact form of list
    narrow      suggests list can be arranged in multiple columns

**** I would like to copy DocBook's feature for allowing you to specify
**** how multicolumn lists wrap horizontally or vertically. Perhaps
**** This is better handled with a new tag for simple lists <list wrap=vert>

Definition Lists:

    compact     this attribute implies a more compact form of list

**** These should be nestable within other lists according to popular appeal.

Tables:

    align       left, center or right (for cell titles or data)

    <TB>        inserts 1/2 line space into next row (to be dropped?)

**** Drop TB due to lack of interest. Some people feel that the current model
**** for tables will give poor performance. This is to be tested
**** experimentally to see if there is strong enough need for additional
**** formatting information

Figures:

    align       position of figure relative to text: left, center or right
    cap         caption at left, right, top, bottom
    noflow      allows you to disable text flow

**** Note that this align attribute is different from IMG. One acts
**** horizontally, the other vertically! I will think over the idea to
**** use IMG for specifying images in figures with this in mind.

Figure overlay (FIGT)

    at          the position of the upper corner relative to the picture
    width       what fraction of the picture the overlay should take up
    framed      whether the overlay should be framed or not

**** The width attribute should perhaps be generalised to specify both
**** width and height intentions for the overlay.

Inlined images:

    align       vertical position relative to current text line

**** Note the difference from the same named attribute for figures.

Generic containers (GROUP)

    inset       inflexible hint to inset margins

**** This should be changed in line with that for paragraphs
**** The spec will be changed to explain this element in more detail

Hypertext links:

    effect      how to deal with the referenced node: replace/new/overlay
    type        for presentation cues
    size        for progress cues

**** The overhaul of the attributes for links and the new powerful model
**** for implicit and explicit links plus support for multi-node documents
**** should go a long way to meeting many peoples' needs.

Regards,

Dave Raggett