Deprecation in HTML 4.0

I don't get the criteria for deprecating elements (and attributes) in
HTML. Somebody say something like: (I've deleted the message and can't
find the archives.  Where are the archives?) 

Deprecated elements must be supported by browsers.  They are hints to
authors that these elements have been superseded by other better
solutions, and they may not be supported in the future.

This sounds like very good reasoning to me, but I get the impression that
some elements are not being deprecated because they are ``popular''.
(e.g. IMG, B, I, TT, <A NAME="foo">)  This seems like a very silly reason
not to deprecate elements (or attributes).  The specs wouldn't force
authors not to use theses elements.  It is a suggestion.  I think most
people here would agree that the above list of elements (and attributes)
shouldn't be used in pure HTML 4.0. (HTML 4.0 strict?)

When is an element popular enough to avoid being deprecated?

Why is APPLET not popular enough?  

Can somebody give me a good reason for not deprecating popular elements?

-- 
Russell O'Connor            |              roconnor@uwaterloo.ca
        <http://www.undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca/%7Eroconnor/>
"And truth irreversibly destroys the meaning of its own message"
-- Anindita Dutta, "The Paradox of Truth, the Truth of Entropy"

Received on Thursday, 10 July 1997 11:37:33 UTC