Re: Proposing <indent> vs. <blockquote>

> Anyway, I think the aim of this process shouldn't be to add extra
> top-level presentational elements to muddy the waters further. It may
> have already been mentioned in this thread, and if so I apologize, but
> why not use something we already have used: attributes? <indent> might
> add an extra element, but <p align="indent">, or however would be best
> to say it, simply adds a presentational suggestion to <p>, a concept
> that has been in HTML for a long time.

I don't think this would work. First, as you said, people have used  
<blockquote>
for quite some time to indent text. They also have used nested  
<blockquote>s
to increase indentation. How would that work using attributes? I  
think it would
confuse users even more.

I'm a big supporter of semantics in HTML. That said, I think that it  
should be at
least partly the responsibility of this working group to further push  
semantics
in HTML and deprecate elements that only have presentational value.  
There
are currently more than enough possibilities to indent elements via  
CSS and
I honestly don't see the need to add properties or elements to HTML  
which do
the same.

As it is, web developers will have to learn (a little bit of) CSS  
anyway, to produce
even just slightly good looking websites.

We can:

	- give people a bit of semantical and a bit of presentational  
control in HTML
	and let them figure out the more advanced presentational styles in CSS,
	confusing them even more (what property takes precedence, etc...)
	
	- or drop the support for presentational stuff altogether. People  
who use tables
	and don't care for the semantics in HTML (teachers who want to put  
timetables
	online, ... as Anne pointed out) can *still* use <blockquote> to  
indent text and
	those who care for a structured document will be able to use  
<blockquote> in
	its semantically correct meaning and style indented text with CSS.

Best,

-- Alexander Graf


DERI Innsbruck
Digital Enterprise Research Institute
Leopold-Franzens-Universität
ICT Technologiepark, Technikerstrasse 21a
6020 Innsbruck, Austria

mail: alexander.graf@deri.org
fon: +43 512 507 96880
mobile: +43 660 7642043
web:  www.deri.at