&nbsp and CSS1 support

 >  > >With CSS and CSS positioning there's no reason people will resort
 >  > >to   for creating spaces.
 >  >
 >  > They might just because it's HTML and that means they don't have to learn
 >  > CSS....  [which] is better supported.
 > 
 > Better supported? It's not supported at all in Navigator 3.0, and many people
 > still use that (because Communicator is a monstrous disk/ram hog).

 CSS is not supported *correctly* in Navigator 4.0, IE 3.0, or IE 4.0
 preview 1 (at least). In fact, are there any browsers that do *fully*
 support CSS1 correctly?

 Note, however, that lack of support for CSS1 is *not* an argument against
 (or for) collapsing adjacent instances of   to a single instance.
 Neither is the fact that authors will continue to "abuse"   an argument
 for (or against) it.

 There are two clear cases:
 
    1.   collapses
	This breaks many existing web pages, and helps force authors to
	use CSS and users to upgrade their software.

    2.   does not collapse
	This does not break existing web pages, and does not help force
	authors to use CSS or users to upgrade their software.

 My personal opinions:

    In the short term, users lose in both cases, and at least some authors
    lose at least somewhat in the former case.

    In the long term, everybody wins if CSS is widely used.

-- John W Pierce, Chem & Biochem, UC San Diego
   jwp@ucsd.edu

Received on Monday, 14 July 1997 17:44:19 UTC