Re: indents

David Siegel wrote:
> Actually, this is a really good question. Should such things be up to the
> style sheet to decide how to present? I believe that the first paragraph in
> a chapter or section (denoted by a heading) or recipe or play act, etc.,
> needs to have its own display rules. To me, this is structural, but maybe
> it's really all presentation.

I think that we all agree that 

 * it is structural. After all the fact that it is first is a
description of its structural location with respect to other objects.

 * any reasonable stylesheet language should support treating first
paragraphs specially, even a language as simple as CSS.

 * there is no good reason to put redundant tags in HTML files labelling
first paragraphs. Sometimes you may want to use DIV to make section
starts explicit, but that's a good idea anyhow.

Do we all agree, then, that HTML does not have to change, but CSS does?

 Paul Prescod

Received on Wednesday, 16 April 1997 18:20:48 UTC