New Highlighting.html [Was: whither <u>...</u>? ]
"Daniel W. Connolly" <connolly@oclc.org>
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 19:21:58 EDT
Message-id: <9406152321.AA02123@ulua.hal.com>
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From: "Daniel W. Connolly" <connolly@oclc.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <html-ig@oclc.org>
Subject: New Highlighting.html [Was: whither <u>...</u>? ]
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In message <CMM.0.90.4.771714150.reed@hades.cshl.org>, Corprew Reed writes:
>
>Does anyone have an opinion on the diff for
>http://www.hal.com/~connolly/html-spec/Highlighting.html?
How about this... (sorry... couldn't wait :-)
Highlighting in HTML
HIGHLIGHTING
This is a level 1[1] feature. Highlighting tags may be ignored by minimal
implementations.
These elements allow sections of text to be formatted in a particular way,
to provide emphasis, etc. The tags do NOT cause a paragraph break, and may
be used on sections of text within paragraphs.
All these tags have required end tags, as in
This is <EM>emphasized</EM> text.
Level 1 implementations must render highlighted text (i.e. the content of
any of the elements below) distinctly from plain text (i.e. text that is not
contained in one of these elements).
EM content must be rendered as distinct from STRONG content, and B content
must rendered as distinct from I content.
Highlighting elements are allowed within the content of other highlighting
elements, but implementations are not required to render these nested
highlighting elements distinctly from non-nested elements. For example,
implementations may render the following two cases identically:
plain <B>bold <I>italic</I></B>
plain <B>bold </B><I>italic</I>
These element names are derived from TeXInfo macro names:
Character Formatting Elements
TT Fixed-width typewriter font.
B Boldface.
I Italics.
PROPOSED CHARACTER FORMATTING ELEMENTS
U Underline.
S Strikethrough, typically a line through the
characters.
Special Phrase Elements
EM Emphasis, typically italic.
STRONG Stronger emphasis, typically bold.
CODE Example of code. typically monospaced font. (Do not
confuse with PRE[2] )
SAMP A sequence of literal characters.
KBD in an instruction manual, Text typed by a user.
VAR A variable name.
CITE A citation. Typically italic.
PROPOSED SPECIAL PHRASE ELEMENTS
DFN The defining instance of a term. Typically bold or
bold italic.
STRIKE "strike out" text, as in a legal document.
Examples of use
This text contains an <em>emphasized</em> word.
<strong>Don't assume</strong> that it will be italic!
It was made using the <CODE>EM</CODE> element. A citation is
typically italic and has no formal necessary structure:
<cite>Moby Dick</cite> is a book title.
NOTE: HIGHLIGHTING DISTINCTIONS
Implementations may render each of the highlighting elements distinctly, but
they are not required to. While CITE must be rendered as distinct from plain
text, it may be rendered the same as EM or the same as STRONG (but not both,
since EM and STRONG must be distinct).
NOTE: EM AND STRONG VS. I AND B
While EM and I often give the same effect, authors are encouraged to use EM
except in the case that it is necessary to refer to the formatting in the
text. (E.g. "The italic parts are mandatory".)
This results in greater consistency between documents from various sources
if, for example, a reader prefers to use color in stead of italics for
emphasis.