Re: Really Quick Guide to Good HTML -Reply

Charles Peyton Taylor <CTaylor@wposmtp.nps.navy.mil> wrote:
>
> Okay, this brings up another question: if I have
> <p> some text </p>, is the "some text" part considered
> part of the element,

Yes -- specifically " some text " is the _content_ of the element.

> or is the paragraph element simply
> the tags (like bookends aren't books?)

Exactly the opposite.  The tags "<p>" and "</p>" are just punctuation;
they're not part of the element at all.

> If the text is part of the element, then that really
> changes the way I would write this (and the way I think
> about it), since the tags would seem separate the elements,
> as opposed to actually being the elements.

Precisely!  Tags delimit the beginning and end of elements,
and specify the attributes and element type name (aka the
"generic identifier" or GI).  The _elements_ are what's important,
not the tags.


--Joe English

  jenglish@crl.com

Received on Wednesday, 21 February 1996 22:38:21 UTC