PRE and CODE elements

• From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
• Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 14:23:23 +1100 (AEDT)
• To: HTML Guidelines Working Group <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
• Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.95.980203141545.22114F-100000@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>

This actually constitutes two separate but related suggestions:

1. Use the CODE in-line element to enclose each block of text that appears
in the document, whether inside the PRE element or not, which contains
text in a computer language.

2. Use the CLASS attribute with the CODE element to designate the type of
code. A list of recognised classes would here be necessary. Since there
are so many computer languages, it would be difficult to develop a
comprehensive catalogue. So far as braille is concerned, the type of
computer language is unimportant: all that need be indicated is that the
text should be treated as computer code rather than being processed
according to the rules applicable to natural languages (literary braille
code, contractions, etc.). Speech is not so easy to address. What would
make a good rendering of programme code, and what kinds of distinctions
between different kinds of code would help to make this possible?

This question is best answered by someone who is experienced in
programming and in reading programme code via a speech synthesiser -- in
other words, not me.

Received on Monday, 2 February 1998 22:23:46 UTC