Re: Deprecating FONT and CENTER

>>>>> "MEH" == Marcus E Hennecke <marcush@crc.ricoh.com> writes:

MEH> I just looked at the "Wednesday 31-May-96" version of the HTML
MEH> 3.2 DTD (I suppose this should be Friday?) and noticed that
MEH> neither CENTER nor FONT have been declared deprecated. Wasn't
MEH> there considerable consensus on this list that they should be? Or
MEH> at least that there should be a strict version without those
MEH> elements?

 O.K. to get the ball rolling on this suggestion, there's a version of
the DTD at
<URL:http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/students/lazio/html3.2.new.dtd>
which has FONT and CENTER marked as %HTML.Deprecated.  I do not have a
working copy of nsgmls (it's a long story, trust me, you don't want to
know it).  If somebody with a working copy and/or more experience with
DTDs would like to take a look, that'd be much appreciated.  I've also
appended a context diff.

 My methodology was the following.  I wrapped a 
<![ %HTML.Deprecated [
...
]]>
around the definitions of FONT and CENTER and any place they were
used (following very much the model in the HTML 2.0 DTD for such
things as PRE).

 Oh, and I pulled the HTML 3.2 DTD from
<URL:http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/Wilbur/HTML3.2.dtd> and it's
dated Wednesday (sic) 31-May-96.


MEH> My personal vote would be for having a strict version without
MEH> FONT and CENTER *and* for deprecating FONT and CENTER (actually I
MEH> am not sure if there is a difference).

 I've also included an %HTML.Recommended which specifies
%HTML.Deprecated to be "IGNORE".  If I understand this correctly, with
%HTML.Recommended set to "INCLUDE" (default is "IGNORE"), then
%HTML.Recommended would have the effect of eliminating FONT and CENTER
as valid elements.

 So...flame away.

-- Joseph

===============================================================

*** html3.2.w3c.dtd	Fri May 31 16:07:39 1996
--- html3.2.new.dtd	Fri May 31 16:39:52 1996
***************
*** 2,10 ****
          W3C Document Type Definition for the HyperText Markup Language
          This version is code named Wilbur, and also as "HTML 3.2".
  
!         Draft: Wednesday 31-May-96
  
!         Author: Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org>
  
          This is subject to change, pending final approval by the W3C
          member companies.
--- 2,11 ----
          W3C Document Type Definition for the HyperText Markup Language
          This version is code named Wilbur, and also as "HTML 3.2".
  
!         Draft: Friday 31-May-96
  
!         Author: Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> with modifications by
!         T. Joseph W. Lazio <lazio@spacenet.tn.cornell.edu>
  
          This is subject to change, pending final approval by the W3C
          member companies.
***************
*** 38,43 ****
--- 39,56 ----
  
  <!--================== Deprecated Features Switch =========================-->
  
+ <!ENTITY % HTML.Recommended "IGNORE"        
+ -- Certain features of the language are necessary for        
+    compatibility with widespread usage, but they may        
+    compromise the structural integrity of a document.        
+    This feature test entity enables a more prescriptive        
+    document type definition that eliminates        
+    those features.        
+ -->
+ <![ %HTML.Recommended [
+         <!ENTITY % HTML.Deprecated "IGNORE">
+ ]]>
+ 
  <!ENTITY % HTML.Deprecated "INCLUDE">
  
  <!--================== Imported Names =====================================-->
***************
*** 93,99 ****
  
  <!ENTITY % phrase "EM | STRONG | DFN | CODE | SAMP | KBD | VAR | CITE">
  
! <!ENTITY % special "A | IMG | APPLET | FONT | BR | SCRIPT | MAP">
  
  <!ENTITY % form "INPUT | SELECT | TEXTAREA">
  
--- 106,116 ----
  
  <!ENTITY % phrase "EM | STRONG | DFN | CODE | SAMP | KBD | VAR | CITE">
  
! <![ %HTML.Deprecated [
! 	<!ENTITY % special "A | IMG | APPLET | FONT | BR | SCRIPT | MAP">
! ]]>
! 
! <!ENTITY % special "A | IMG | APPLET | BR | SCRIPT | MAP">
  
  <!ENTITY % form "INPUT | SELECT | TEXTAREA">
  
***************
*** 111,121 ****
--- 128,140 ----
   16 colors supported with the Windows VGA palette.
   -->
  
+ <![ %HTML.Deprecated [
  <!ELEMENT FONT - - (%text)*     -- local change to font -->
  <!ATTLIST FONT
      size    CDATA   #IMPLIED    -- [+]nn e.g. size="+1", size=4 --
      color   CDATA   #IMPLIED    -- #RRGGBB in hex, e.g. red: color="#FF0000" --
      >
+ ]]>
  
  <!ELEMENT BR    - O EMPTY   -- forced line break -->
  <!ATTLIST BR
***************
*** 131,139 ****
--- 150,164 ----
          %bodytext   as (b) plus headers and ADDRESS
  -->
  
+ <![ %HTML.Deprecated [
  <!ENTITY % block
       "P | %list | %preformatted | DL | DIV | CENTER |
        BLOCKQUOTE | FORM | ISINDEX | HR | TABLE">
+ ]]>
+ 
+ <!ENTITY % block
+      "P | %list | %preformatted | DL | DIV | 
+       BLOCKQUOTE | FORM | ISINDEX | HR | TABLE">
  
  <!-- %flow is used for DD and LI -->
  
***************
*** 168,175 ****
--- 193,203 ----
          align   (left|center|right) left -- alignment of following text --
          >
  
+ <![ %HTML.Deprecated [
  <!-- CENTER is a shorthand for DIV with ALIGN=CENTER -->
+ <!-- and is deprecated in favor of the latter.       -->
  <!ELEMENT center - - %body.content>
+ ]]>
  
  <!--================== The Anchor Element =================================-->

Received on Friday, 31 May 1996 16:45:40 UTC