[whatwg] [HTML5] About the <pre> element

David Bruant a ?crit :
> Hi,
>
> I recently learnt to use the white-space css rule
> (http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/text.html#white-space-prop) and wondered if
> the <pre> element was finally not just a presentational element since
> its behavior can be emulated on other elements with a css rule.
>
> On the CSS2 link I provide we can read this :
> "The following example show what white space behavior is expected from
> the PRE element [...]
>
> pre        { white-space: pre }"
> It gives me the impression that the pre element is a caricature of a
> presentational element.
>
> Thus, for the computer code use case described in the pre element
> subsection, I don't see a reason to use a <pre> element.
> Writing the following is semantically sufficient and handles the
> presentation as expected :
> <code style="white-space:pre;">
> #include <stdlib.h>
> int main(){
>     return EXIT_SUCCESS; // Because we always succeed !
> }
> </code>
>
> My proposition is to remove the <pre> element since it doesn't have
> another semantic than "present the information as I did (white spaces,
> line breaks)"
>   
=> Sorry, "remove" is a bit violent. I mean "deprecate".
> For the ASCII art use case, what is said about "an alternative
> description" strongly reminds the alt attribute of the img element.
> Perhaps ASCII art should be done inside of an <img> element. The <img>
> element is probably the HTML element which has the closest semantic of
> the ASCII artist intention.
>
> Any opinion ?
>
> David
>

Received on Tuesday, 24 November 2009 21:27:08 UTC