HTML 3.2 PR: Please add CLASS attribute!

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Why isn't the CLASS attribute available in HTML 3.2? It is a real 
pain that you can't use style sheets on documents and keep them 
HTML 3.2 compliant. 

The addition of the attribute (supported by MS IE 3, so it would
fall under the "current browser" flag) would not hurt *anything*
on non-supporting browsers.  The STYLE element, and the <LINK
REL=stylesheet> method provide a reliable way to include style
information in the document. 

I really don't see a reason not to include this attribute. It
can't be that REL and REV on A, or <FONT COLOR>, are more widely
supported than CLASS. There would be no requirements on the use
of this attribute, just something like "-- for future support of
style sheet--" would be more than enough.

Here are suggested changes/additions to the HTML 3.2 DTD,
based on the 05/11 PR draft from the W3C[0]. As I am not that
familiar with SGML, I would appreciate any corrections.

<!-- I assume that multiple ATTLISTs on an element are permitted -->
<!ATTLIST ( %font | %phrase | %special | %form )
    class  CDATA #IMPLIED
    >

<!ATTLIST ( %block )
    align  (left|center|right) #IMPLIED -- ALIGN on *ALL* block elements? --
    class  CDATA #IMPLIED
    >

<!ATTLIST ( %list )
    class  CDATA #IMPLIED
    >

<!ATTLIST TR
    %cell.halign;
    %cell.valign;
    class  CDATA #IMPLIED
    >

<!ATTLIST ( TH | TD)
    nowrap (nowrap)  #IMPLIED
    rowspan NUMBER   1
    colspan NUMBER   1
    %cell.halign;
    %cell.valign;
    width   %Pixels  #IMPLIED
    height  %Pixels  #IMPLIED
    class  CDATA #IMPLIED
    >

[0] http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR/PR-html32-961105

Galactus

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E-mail: galactus@htmlhelp.com .................... PGP Key: 512/63B0E665
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Received on Wednesday, 20 November 1996 14:56:31 UTC