- From: Michal Young <young@cs.purdue.edu>
- Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 09:27:29 -0600
- To: boo@primenet.com, Multiple recipients of list <www-html@www10.w3.org>
>Tabs are used in word processing to align columns. Among other things. They are also used for indentation of program text. >HTML 3 has a facility for columns: i.e., Tables. Much better than tabs! And completely useless for program text. Non-breaking spaces can be used for indentation from left margin, but isn't much use for placing comments that occur to the right of program text. Last I checked, the draft HTML 3 spec did have a tabbing facility --- not using tab characters, but by either specifying the tab position or by setting tab stops and referring to them. It looked similar to what typical WP programs provide, and quite usable for program listings among other uses. It looks to be well-enough designed to be usable with a mix of fonts and sizes (a big problem when one tries to hack tabs using non-breaking spaces). There are probably many other situations in which tables are *not* a suitable replacement for tabs. That is why WP programs with excellent table facilities (FrameMaker, for example) also provide good facilities for tabbing. ---------------------- Michal Young Purdue University Software Engineering Research Center Department of Computer Sciences 1398 Computer Science Building West Lafayette, IN 47907-1398 voice: 317-494-6023 fax: 317-494-0739 URL: http://www.cs.purdue.edu/people/young -----------------------
Received on Friday, 26 May 1995 10:28:13 UTC