- From: Murray Maloney <murray@sco.com>
- Date: Thu, 17 Nov 1994 15:37:19 -0500 (EST)
- To: www-html@www0.cern.ch
Hi all, I saw the following article posted on comp.infosystems.www.misc Unfortunately it was posted from an "anonymous contact service", so it is not possible to know who posted it. I assume that it had to come from someone at Netscape Communications; I hope an appropriate person will join this discussion in due course. Anyway, I was hoping that we could get a discussion started. I see alot of merit in some/many of the extensions proposed here. I also see some things which I would have done differently. I am deliberately not posting this on the html-wg list for now. That mailing list is busy dealing with last minute revisions to the HTML 2.0 specification for submission at the IETF meeting in San Jose (Dec 5, 1994). I have deliberately not posted my response back to the newsgroup as it has way too much traffic for me to be able to consider participating in a discussion in that forum. This mail list, on the other hand, is much more manageable. If you don't agree, then by all means take it back to comp.infosystems.www.misc and I will simply have to drop out of the discussion. I will be posting my comments about these proposed changes at a later date. Thanks, Murray =========================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Murray C. Maloney Internet: murray@sco.com Technical Publications Writer/Architect Uucp: ...uunet!sco!murray SCO Canada, Inc. My Phone: (416) 960-4031 130 Bloor Street West, 10th Floor Fax: (416) 922-2704 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1N5 SCO Phone: (416) 922-1937 =========================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsor member of Davenport Group (ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/davenport/) Member of IETF HTML Working Group (http://www.hal.com/%7Econnolly/html-spec/) Member of SGML Open Internet and WWW Technical Committee =========================================================================== Forwarded message: > Message-ID: <045303Z12111994@anon.penet.fi> > Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.www.misc > From: an102970@anon.penet.fi > X-Anonymously-To: comp.infosystems.www.misc > Organization: Anonymous contact service > Reply-To: an102970@anon.penet.fi > Date: Sat, 12 Nov 1994 04:44:57 UTC > Subject: MCOM html extensions > Lines: 223 > > > EXTENSIONS TO HTML > > These are proposed extensions to the soon to be released HTML 2.0 > specification. Mosaic Communications will be working with the > appropriate standards bodys, including W3O, and the authors of other > WWW browsers in an attempt to have these extensions available in all > browsers in the near future. All the Netscape extensions to HTML > take the form of additional tags and attributes added to the HTML > specification and are specifically designed not to break existing WWW > browsers. > > <ISINDEX> > To the ISINDEX element we have added the PROMPT tag. ISINDEX > indicates that a document is a searchable index. PROMPT has > been added so the document author can specify what message they > want to appear before the text input field of the index. The > default is of course that unfortunate message: This is a > searchable index. Enter search keywords: > > <HR> > The HR element specifies that a horizontal rule of some sort > (The default being a shaded engraved line) be drawn across the > page. To this element we have added 4 new tags to allow the > document author some ability to describe how the horizontal > rule should look. > > <HR SIZE=number> > The SIZE tag lets the author give an indication of how > thick they wish the horizontal rule to be. > > <HR WIDTH=number|percent> > The default horizontal rule is always as wide as the > page. With the WIDTH tag, the author can specify an exact > width in pixels, or a relative width measured in percent > of document width. > > <HR ALIGN=left|right|center> > Now that horizontal rules do not have to be the width of > the page we need to allow the author to specify whether > they should be pushed up against the left margin, the > right margin, or centered in the page. > > <HR NOSHADE> > Finally, for those times when you really want a solid > bar, the NOSHADE tag lets you specify that you do not > want any fancy shading of your horizontal rule. > > <UL> > Your basic bulleted list has a default progression of bullet > types that changes as you move through indented levels. From a > solid disc, to a circle to a square. We have added a TYPE tag > to the UL element so no matter what your indent level you can > specify whether you want a TYPE=disc, TYPE=circle, or > TYPE=square as your bullet. > > <OL> > Your average ordered list counts 1, 2, 3, ... etc. We have also > added the TYPE tag to this element to allow authors to specify > whether the want their list items marked with: capital letters > (TYPE=A), small letters (TYPE=a), large roman numerals > (TYPE=I), small roman numerals (TYPE=i), or the default numbers > (TYPE=1). > > For lists that wish to start at values other than 1 we have the > new tag START. START is always specified in the default > numbers, and will be converted based on TYPE before display. > Thus START=5 would display either an 'E', 'e', 'V', 'v', or '5' > based on the TYPE tag. > > <LI> > To give even more flexibility to lists, we thought it would be > nice if the author could change the list type, and for ordered > lists the list count index as they progressed. To this end we > added the TYPE tag to the LI element as well. It takes the same > values as either UL or OL depending on the type of list you are > in, and it changes the list type for that item, and all > subsequent items. For ordered lists we have also added the > VALUE element so you can change the count, for that list item > and all subsequent. > > <IMG> > The IMG tag is probably the most extended tag. > > <IMG > ALIGN=left|right|top|texttop|middle|absmiddle|baseline|botto > m|absbottom> > The additions to your ALIGN options needs a lot of > explanation. First, the values "left" and "right". Images > with those alignments are an entirely new floating > image type. A ALIGN=left image will float down and over > to the left margin (into the next available space there), > and subsequent text will wrap around the right hand side > of that image. Likewise for ALIGN=right the image aligns > with the right margin, and the text wraps around the > left. > > The rest of the align options are my way of trying to > correct for the horrible errors I made when first > implementing the IMG tag, without destroying the look of > existing documents. ALIGN=top does just what it always > did, which is align itself with the top of the tallest > item in the line. ALIGN=texttop does what many people > thought top should do which is align itself with the top > of the tallest text in the line (this is usually but not > always the same as ALIGN=top). ALIGN=middle does just > what it always did, it aligns the baseline of the current > line with the middle of the image. ALIGN=absmiddle does > what middle should have done which is align the middle of > the current line with the middle of the image. > ALIGN=baseline aligns the bottom of the image with the > baseline of the current line. ALIGN=bottom does just what > it always did (which is identical to ALIGN=baseline but > baseline is a better name). ALIGN=absbottom does what > bottom should have done which is align the bottom of the > image with the bottom of the current line. > > <IMG WIDTH=value HEIGHT=value> > The WIDTH and HEIGHT tags were added to IMG mainly to > speed up display of the document. If the author specifies > these, the viewer of their document will not have to wait > for the image to be loaded over the network and its size > calculated. > > <IMG BORDER=value> > This lets the document author control the thickness of > the border around an image displayed. Warning: setting > BORDER=0 on images that are also part of anchors may > confuse your users as they are used to a colored border > indicating an image is an anchor. > > <IMG VSPACE=value HSPACE=value> > For the floating images it is likely that the author > does not want them pressing up against the text wrapped > around the image. VSPACE controls the vertical space > above and below the image, while HSPACE controls the > horizontal space to the left and right of the image. > > <BR> > With the addition of floating images, we needed to expand the > BR tag. Normal BR still just inserts a line break. We have > added a CLEAR tag to BR, so CLEAR=left will break the line, and > move vertically down until you have a clear left margin (no > floating images). CLEAR=right does the same for the right > margin, and CLEAR=all moves down until both margins are clear > of images. > > New Elements > > <NOBR> > The NOBR element stands for NO BReak. This means all the text > between the start and end of the NOBR elements cannot have line > breaks inserted between them. While NOBR is essential for those > odd character sequences you really don't want broken, please be > careful; long text strings inside of NOBR elements can look > rather odd. > > <WBR> > The WBR element stands for Word BReak. This is for the very > rare case when you have a NOBR section and you know exactly > where you want it to break. Also, any time you want to give > Netscape help by telling it where a word is allowed to be > broken. The WBR element does not force a line break (BR does > that) it simply lets Netscape know where a line break is > allowed to be inserted if needed. > > <FONT SIZE=value> > Surprise! You can change the font size. Valid values range from > 1-7. The default font size is 3. The value given to size can > optionally have a '+' or '-' character in front of it to > specify that it is relative the the document basefont. The > default basefont is 3, and can be changed with the BASEFONT > element. > > <BASEFONT SIZE=value> > This changes the size of the BASEFONT that all relative font > changes are based on. It defaults to 3, and has a valid range > of 1-7. > > <CENTER> > You aren't dreaming, yes you can center your text. All lines of > text between the begin and end of CENTER are centered between > the current left and right margins. A new tag has been > introduced rather than using the proposed <P Align="center"> > because using <P Align="center"> breaks many existing browsers > when the <P> tag is used as a container. The <P Align="center"> > tag is also less general and does not support all cases where > centering may be desired. > > Behavioral Changes > > Font attributes are now properly cumulative. Text inside something > like > <i><tt><font size=6><b>Text here</b></font></tt></i> > will be italic fixed bold text of size 6. > > Netscape should now properly deal with the awful HTML comment > sequence. This should be: <!-- Comment here --> These comments can > include other elements, and thus be used to quickly comment out large > chunks of markup. > > Line breaking is a little more under control now. Unless specified > with a formatting element, lines can only be broken where empty space > occurs in the original document. This means any spaces, tabs, or > newlines. You should never again have the sequence <A HREF=url>Anchor > here</A>. broken between the highlighted anchor and the period. > > New Entities > > In addition to the [1]usual & escaped entities: > ® -> Registered Trademark -> ® > © -> Copyright -> © > > _________________________________________________________________ > > [2]info@mcom.com > Copyright © 1994 Mosaic Communications Corporation. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. > Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, > and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. > Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.
Received on Thursday, 17 November 1994 21:47:22 UTC