Re: Some complaints about HTML 4.0

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At 08:44 PM 12/07/97 -0700, David Perrell wrote:
>>From Liam Quinn:
>> At 06:59 PM 12/07/97 -0700, David Perrell wrote:
>> >Arnoud "Galactus" Engelfriet wrote:
>> >> 2. There is definite statement on    being collapsing or
>> >not.
>> >
>> >A statement there should definitely be, and it should definitely be
>> >'not'.
>> 
>> Why?
>
>The reason white space must collapse is to allow readable structured
>markup. Author/designers commonly use multiple   to bypass that
>limitation. Since consecutive   are there by intent, and the
>intent is unambiguous, is there any logical reason why they should
>collapse?

Not really, except perhaps that multiple spaces (non-breaking or 
otherwise) are not structural elements and thus should be ignored.  HTML 
4.0 defines the   entity as a method for prohibiting a line break.  
If we accept   as a non-collapsing, non-breaking space, HTML 4.0's 
definition would have to be augmented to also define   as a method 
for forcing a space.  But the fact that multiple spaces have nothing to do 
with structure and everything to do with presentation suggests that non-
collapsible spaces have no place in HTML.

While we're on this topic...  What about multiple BR elements?  Should 
these be collapsed?

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Liam Quinn
===============  http://www.htmlhelp.com/%7Eliam/  ===============
Web Design Group            Enhanced Designs, Web Site Development
http://www.htmlhelp.com/    http://enhanced-designs.com/
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Received on Sunday, 13 July 1997 00:10:29 UTC