Block level elements

I took an action to exmine the definition of Block-level elements in HTML
4, and discovered that they are defined at
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/global.html#h-7.5.3 as

 7.5.3 Block-level and inline elements
   
   Certain HTML elements that may appear in BODY are said to be "block-level"
   while others are "inline" (also known as "text level"). The distinction is
   founded on several notions:
   
   Content model
          Generally, block-level elements may contain inline elements and
          other block-level elements. Generally, inline elements may contain
          only data and other inline elements. Inherent in this structural
          distinction is the idea that block elements create "larger"
          structures than inline elements.
        
   Formatting
          By default, block-level elements are formatted differently than
          inline elements. Generally, block-level elements begin on new lines,
          inline elements do not. For information about white space, line
          breaks, and block formatting, please consult the section on text.
       
   Directionality
          For technical reasons involving the [UNICODE] bidirectional text
          algorithm, block-level and inline elements differ in how they
          inherit directionality information. For details, see the section on
          inheritance of text direction.
              
   Style sheets provide the means to specify the rendering of arbitrary
   elements, including whether an element is rendered as block or inline. In
   some cases, such as an inline style for list elements, this may be
   appropriate, but generally speaking, authors are discouraged from
   overriding the conventional interpretation of HTML elements in this way.
         
   The alteration of the traditional presentation idioms for block level and
   inline elements also has an impact on the bidirectional text algorithm. See
   the section on the effect of style sheets on bidirectionality for more
   information.
  
In an appendix to the CSS2 entitled a sample style sheet for HTML 4 to
following elements are given as block-level:

ADDRESS, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, DD, DIV, DL, DT, FIELDSET,
FORM, FRAME, FRAMESET, H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, IFRAME,
NOSCRIPT, NOFRAMES, OBJECT, OL, P, UL, APPLET, CENTER,
DIR, HR, MENU, PRE, LI, TABLE, TR, THEAD, TBODY, TFOOT,
COL, COLGROUP, TD, TH, CAPTION

from http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/sample.html

The context was the checkpoint "allow the user to navigate among block
elements" (6.2.5 in the 9 march 1999 draft).

My suggestion would be to remove this checkpoint since the required
functions are already covered by other checkpoints in the same section.

Charles McCN

--Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA

Received on Tuesday, 9 March 1999 18:27:36 UTC