I think of <PRE>'s semantics as "the layout of
this element's content is critical to its meaning;
please do not change it." The "true" meaning -- whether
it's a program listing, a screendump, or what have you --
is document-specific.
(Just like <Hn>'s semantics are "The content of this
element describes the succeeding text; please make
it stand out", whereas the "true" meaning could
be "chapter title", "subroutine name", "figure caption",
or whatever, again depending on the document.)
--Joe English
joe@trystero.art.com