- From: Scott Porad <porad@smallworld.com>
- Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 12:50:13 -0400 (EDT)
- To: www-html@w3.org
There a great debate at our firm about the merits and correct usage of the <P>, </P> and <BR> tags. Perhaps someone knows what's up? First of all, after consulting the HTML spec at http://www.sandia.gov/sci_compute/elements.html it is clear that <P ATTRIBUTE="foo"> requires a </P> tag. (I've enclosed references from this page below.) We all agree on that. Next, we agree that a <P> tag between two blocks of text accomplishes the task of inserting a blank line between paragraphs. However, although the Sandia spec says that <P>..text... is a minimum possible attribute, some folks do not all agree that a plain <P> between two blocks of text is correct. Some folks say that when no attribute is required a simple <P> between blocks of text, ie paragraphs, should not be used. Rather, two (2) <BR> tags should be used. Other folks think that is silly and not the correct way to use <BR> tags. Those (other) folks think that if you insist that a plain <P> tag is incorrect then <P>...text...</P><P>...text...</P> should always be used (as opposed to <BR><BR>). So, there's the great debate. Any thoughts? Scott ----- Scott Porad porad@smallworld.com Small World Software http://www.smallworld.com P Description ----------- The P element is used to denote a paragraph break, and separates two blocks of text. Many other elements automatically imply a text separation, such as headings, list elements, blockquotes, etc. Minimum Attributes ------------------ <P>characters... All Possible Attributes ----------------------- <P ALIGN=center|left|right|justify|indent WRAP=on|off NOWRAP CLEAR=left|right|all|"..." LANG="..." DIR=ltr|rtl ID="..." CLASS="...">characters... </P> Elements Allowed Within... -------------------------- members of group text Allowed In Content Of... ------------------------ Any element that permits members of group block Variations ---------- In Version 1, the <P> element was a separator and the </P> element was not defined. RFC 1866 changed the concept to a container and introduced the optional </P> element. The LANG and DIR attributes are introduced with the internationalization proposal. HTML+ introduced the ALIGN attribute and is the only proposal to mention the indent value. The internationalization proposal includes ALIGN=center|left|right|justify Netscape 2.0 implements ALIGN=center|left|right and MS Internet Explorer 2.0 implements ALIGN=center|left|right|justify Version 3 does not currently include indent as an option for ALIGN. The CLEAR attribute is proposed in Version 3 to deal with text able to float around an image defined with the IMG element. HTML+ introduced the ID attribute to replace the NAME attribute in the A element to establish internal hyperlink destinations. With the expected use of ID for style sheets, this is likely to change. HTML+ proposed WRAP to turn off automatic word wrap, making it possible to leave text as it appears in the source. Version 3 replaces the WRAP attribute and values with the NOWRAP attribute. The P element is Level 0. BR Description ----------- The BR element breaks for a new line, but does not produce separation of text. Minimum Attributes ------------------ <BR> All Possible Attributes ----------------------- <BR CLEAR=left|right|all|"..." ID="..." CLASS="..."> Elements Allowed Within... -------------------------- The BR element is defined as having no content. Allowed In Content Of... ------------------------ Any element that permits members of group text Variations ---------- The CLEAR attribute is a Netscape 1.1 extension and was added to force the line break to clear possible floating graphic images. The standard tables proposal expects the presence of this attribute since it expects text to flow around a table, if possible, but does not standardize the attribute's existence as part of the proposal. Version 3 includes CLEAR, and proposes the remaining attributes. The BR element is Level 0.
Received on Friday, 16 August 1996 13:10:43 UTC