Super- and subscripts in HTML+

Dave_Raggett <dsr@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
From: Dave_Raggett <dsr@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
Message-id: <9306070918.AA00664@manuel.hpl.hp.com>
Subject: Super- and subscripts in HTML+
To: bobs@sco.com
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 93 10:18:50 BST
Cc: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Mailer: Elm [revision: 66.36.1.1]
Bob Stayton, Technical Publications at The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
has requested that we include support for subscripts and superscripts:

> We use superscripts primarily for trademark attribution
> (e.g., TM and r-circle), as well as in a few instances of
> mathematical exponents within a sentence.  We also use
> subscripts as a mathematical index on certain man pages.  I
> wasn't asking for a full treatment of mathematical
> equations, which I agree should be handled as embedded
> figures.  But a simple exponent within a sentence should
> not be forced into being a graphic in my opinion.  The
> formatting is relatively simple (move up or down a
> half line until turned off), and would seem to be
> within the scope of the simple formatting done
> in WWW clients.

I have just added these as presentation styles to the inline emphasis tag:

        There has been a lot of interest lately in
        mc<emph tag="super">2</emph>.
i.e                                                  2
        There has been a lot of interest lately in mc .

        (HP-speak for measurement, computation and communication)

The suggestions for rendering emphasis are:

    a)  allow users to tailor the display via user prefernces
        e.g. italic, bold, underline, highlight, super/subscript

    b)  default to italic or highlighted text for unrecognised types


These changes will make their way to the CERN copy soonish.

Regards,

Dave Raggett

p.s. Does anyone mind if I change the generic emphasis tag from EMPH to EM?