Re: 3.2 tables and the width attribute

Charles Peyton Taylor <CTaylor@wposmtp.nps.navy.mil> wrote:

> I remember some discussion about the percent symbol
> screwing things up in SMGL, but I notice that in 
> the HTML 3.2 overview Width="80%" is used.  It makes
> sense that the percent symbol is okay within 
> quotation marks, but other values for attributes 
> can often drop the quotation marks.


Paraphrasing ISO 8879, (which is a little unclear on this issue, 
to say the least), the rules are that LIT or LITA delimiters 
(" or ' quotes) around attribute values:

    * _may be omitted_ if the attribute value contains
      nothing but name characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, periods,
      and hyphens),

    * _must be omitted_ if attribute name minimization is used 
      (e.g., <DL COMPACT> as shorthand for <DL COMPACT="COMPACT">)

    * _must be present_ otherwise.


Note that RFC1866 section 3.2.4 "Attributes" is not quite right;
it has several incorrect and/or misleading statements. 

Note also that the underscore "_" is _not_ a legal name character,
so the Netscape-Framesism  <A TARGET=_top ...> is illegal
and should be written <A TARGET="_top" ...> instead.


--Joe English

  joe@art.com

Received on Friday, 10 May 1996 14:03:43 UTC