Re: textured backgrounds

Joe English (joe@trystero.art.com)
Wed, 18 Jan 95 13:29:50 EST

Peter Flynn <pflynn@curia.ucc.ie> wrote:

> [Joe English wrote:]
> > #3 adds more presentation attributes to the DTD,
> > which I thought was a Bad Thing. (It also adds
>
> Where did this impression come from? I'd far rather see
> presentation-oriented matter in attributes (like <em rend="italic">)
> than in hard-coded tags like <i>

I like the current HTML 3 approach better: a *single*
attribute on each document element (STYLE, ROLE, or CLASS)
which can be used to reference style information.
That way the document content remains relatively
uncluttered, and all the style specifications can
be kept in one place (either the <HEAD> or an
external stylesheet).

Adding a BACKGROUND-IMAGE attribute to <BODY> would
be stepping onto a a slippery slope, I think.
Next would be LEFT-MARGIN and RIGHT-MARGIN
attributes [*]. Those would be useful for <P>
and <BLOCKQUOTE> and all the other block-level
elements, so they would get them next. And so on.
Pretty soon "presentation-tuned" HTML starts
looking like RTF. (True, authors wouldn't *have* to
use all the presentation attributes, but many would.)
Applications based on sgmls would get slower and
slower, since the parser reports every #IMPLIED attribute
whether it's specified or not. The DTD gets more and
more cluttered. Browsers get bigger and bigger.
End of the Web predicted! Film at 11!

Nah, better to add the CLASS attribute and say "No more.
All future style specifications go in the <HEAD>."

> > more embedded URL attributes, which I also think
> > is a Bad Thing, but that's just my opinion.)
>
> Nasty to parse: can't we start a campaign to use the same attribute
> name for all URL attributes?

I agree, and would take this a step further:
all attributes with the same meaning should
have the same name. And conversely, all attributes
with the same name should have the same meaning --
no more "TYPE" attributes defined differently
for each element.

[*] Re left-margin and right-margin: These are
the style parameters I'd most like to see specifiable.
Just not on the <P> element!

--Joe English

jenglish@crl.com