Re: [html5] proposal to add <text> element.

On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:36:58 +0100, Andrew Fedoniouk  
<news@terrainformatica.com> wrote:

> I propose to add <text> element to the list of supported elements.
> <text> is exactly <p> in all meanings other than default styling: it has  
> no margins by default.

I propose not to do this.

> Having it in place will help to deal with the text in WYSIWYG editors  
> and in other places where generic text container is required.
> Outlook for example creates paragraphs as <div>s so in mail systems that  
> do not use or have limited CSS support text
> appears without "extra lines". Many pages too abuse <div> element - are  
> using it as just a margin-less text element.
> That is not so pretty, IMO.

The fact that some tools can't get HTML right isn't an especially good  
reason to introduce new elements - in fact it is one of the reasons not  
to, IMHO. After all, why complicate something that is already not done  
properly?

An alternative interpretation is that the tools were developed before CSS  
rendering was available in mail clients (which is effectively in the dark  
ages now) - tools *could* be updated, but they may as well be updated to  
use HTML as is, since that is better supported in things like last year's  
copy of Dreamweaver, or next week's version of Word, or the email clients  
that people have today - and that support in clients is important to  
developers of tools making content for those clients.

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile  Opera Software, Standards Group
     je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg lærer norsk
http://my.opera.com/chaals       Try Opera: http://www.opera.com

Received on Wednesday, 11 February 2009 08:14:13 UTC