Re: CSS 2.1 WD and non-CSS presentational hints

Coises wrote:
> 
> The presentation of <b> is specified using CSS... so it can't be a
> "non-CSS presentational hint."

Yes it can. The <b> by itself, without CSS rules, suggests (hints)
"boldface". A <b> element should be boldface even in a non-CSS-
enabled graphical browser such as NS 3. Therefore it is a non-CSS
presentational hint. Whether the /implementation/ that acts on
this hint uses CSS syntax or not is irrelevant.

> I've place a page here:
>      http://www.coises.com/operabug/phints1.htm
> that provides a simple test/demonstration.  In IE 6 for Windows, it can be
> seen that <B> and <CENTER> are *not* "non-CSS presentational hints"...
> while the attribute in <DIV ALIGN=CENTER> is.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/present/graphics.html#edef-CENTER :
   | The CENTER element is exactly equivalent to specifying the
   | DIV element with the align attribute set to "center". 

If <center> and <div align=center> are exactly equal, exactly why
don't they behave the same way?

> I then examined the questions of whether this definition was useful, and
> what its implications might be for "interoperability."  The results are not
> ideal, but I believe they would be workable.

If the purpose of a workable standard is interoperability and if under
your defintion any implementation can pick and choose what it determines
to be a "non-CSS presentational hint", then the results are not workable.

~fantasai

Received on Tuesday, 27 August 2002 11:57:38 UTC