HTML 3.0 list DTD

I'd like to suggest some changes to the DTD for lists just to clarify things
a little:

---cut here---
<! Unordered lists:

   o Single or multicolumn with horizontal or vertical wrapping

   o Plain or bulleted list items

   o bullets can be customized by:
     - entities in HTML.icons via DINGBAT attribute
     - inline image via SRC attribute
     - individual attributes on LI tags
-->
<!ATTLIST UL
        %attrs;
        %needs;                       -- for control of text flow --
        wrap  (none|vert|horiz) none  -- multicolumn list style --
        plain  (plain)  #IMPLIED      -- suppress bullets --
        dingbat  ENTITY  #IMPLIED     -- bullet defined by entity --
        src  (%URI;)  #IMPLIED        -- bullet defined by inline image --
        %url.link;                    -- standard link attributes --
        compact  (compact)  #IMPLIED  -- reduced interitem spacing --
        >

[i've omitted the DTD for LH]

<!--
   For unordered lists, you can override the standard bullet with a custom
   graphic specified via a URI e.g. src="splash.gif" or a reference to one
   of the HTML.icon graphics e.g. dingbat="&folder;".

   The SRC and DINGBAT attributes do not apply to list items in an ordered
   list.

   The skip attribute is used with ordered lists to skip over sequence
   numbers for items which have been left out of the list, e.g. skip=3
   advances the sequence number past 3 omitted items. The SKIP attribute
   does not apply to items in an unordered list.
-->

<!ELEMENT LI - O %flow; -- list item -->
<!ATTLIST LI
        %attrs;
        %needs;                      -- for control of text flow --
        dingbat  ENTITY  #IMPLIED    -- bullet defined by entity --
        src  (%URI;)  #IMPLIED       -- bullet defined by inline image --
        %url.link;                   -- standard link attributes --
        skip  NUMBER  0              -- skip seq nums for missing items --
        >
---cut here---

If someone needs explicit labels on list items in an unordered list, then they
should be using a definition list, not an unordered list. If there is a need
for explicit labels on an ordered list (and I don't think there is) then a
separate LABEL attribute should be defined for that explicit purpose. Making
the LABEL attribute serve dual (and diverse) functions for the two different
kinds of lists is confusing.

I suggest SRC rather than GRAPHIC or BULLET for consistency with every other
element that embeds an inline graphic.

Michael Johnson
Relay Technology, Inc.

Received on Friday, 9 December 1994 22:15:58 UTC