HTML 4: Some points, and questions

 
I have some notes and questions regarding the HTML Working draft of 
17/September/1997; and in reviewing the archive for this list, do not 
see any discussion on these points. So, here goes:

1. The 'loose' DTD permits IFRAME elements inside a PRE. This does not
   seem sensible, given that IMG is not allowed in this context.  In the 
   dtd, this would mean changing the entity

  <!ENTITY % pre.exclusion 
	 "IMG|OBJECT|APPLET|BIG|SMALL|SUB|SUP|FONT|BASEFONT">
   to:

  <!ENTITY % pre.exclusion 
	 "IMG|OBJECT|APPLET|BIG|SMALL|SUB|SUP|FONT|BASEFONT|IFRAME">

   Or, is there a reason why IFRAME is allowed in this context
   (i.e., current browser implementations?)

2. The content model for INS/DEL is perplexing, to say the least --
   INS/DEL is allowed only within BODY, but can only contain
   %inline... Thus one cannot actually use INS to mark up a block
   element, or to mark up text within a block element? 

   More generally, the intended use of INS/DEL is not clear - is it
   to mark up blocks of plain text, or delineate text+markup? If the
   latter, then the content model should allow *any* element
   as content?

3. In the DTD, the AREA, BUTTON and INPUT elements can take 
   an ACCESSKEY attribute, but the documentation at 
   <URL:./interact/forms.html/#adef-accesskey>
   states that ACCESSKEY is only supported by LABEL, A, CAPTION
   and LEGEND.   I assume that the DTD is normative in this respect?

4.  Section 3.2.1, Block level and Inline elements 
   ... describes the important differences between these groups of 
   elements, but does not explicitly define which elements belong in 
   which group. For example, what are the types for BUTTON, LI, TD, 
   CAPTION, DT, DD, COL, COLGROUP or THEAD?  What about 'meta' 
   information elements, such as PARAM, AREA, or BASEFONT (the latter 
   being, admittedly, a bad example). They would seem to not belong to 
   either group. Perhaps there is a use for a new category of 'meta'-
   data body elements (PARAM, AREA), and for a normative list defining
   which elements fall under which categories.

5. The 'event handlers' list does not include the currently implemented
   onError handler -- is that intentional?   I would think that it should 
   be included, to reflect current implementations. 

6. Small document 'bugs'

   a)  The link from 
       <URL:./struct/global.html#adef-id> to the section on
       name spaces is broken.

   b)  The link from the TYPE attribute under the LINK section
       <URL:./struct/links.html#1-3.3> is connected, incorrectly,
       to the form INPUT element TYPE attribute description.

Ian
--
Ian Graham ......................... Centre for Academic Technology
i a n   d o t   g r a h a m    a t    u t o r o n t o   d o t   c a
Centre for Academic Technology
Information Commons                               Tel: 416-978-4548
University of Toronto                             Fax: 416-978-7705
..................... http://www.utoronto.ca/ian/ .................

Received on Tuesday, 11 November 1997 12:31:34 UTC