OBJECT, inheritance, and rendering

Let's suppose that OBJECT has a plain text file as its data source. Perhaps
the parent of OBJECT is P. Assuming that OBJECT has no formatting specified
in CSS, nor any presentational attributes in markup, what is the most
reasonable (screen) rendering for the text? Should whitespace be honored, a
lá PRE? Or should the object's content render like that of the parent
element - P - wrapping to the same width? What if OBJECT's parent is PRE
instead of P?

Now suppose OBJECT references an HTML file. Do the HTML, HEAD, or BODY
elements in the included file implicitly terminate the P element from which
it is called? Does the H1? The P?

Suppose I say in CSS that OBJECT should be red, and OBJECT's content is an
HTML file that may or may not have its own stylesheet information concerning
color (say, blue on BODY). How should the cascade resolve? 

I recall some discussion of these points several months ago, but don't
remember details.

If OBJECT should render truly as a thing unto itself, inheriting nothing
from its parents, in what functional respects does OBJECT differ from
IFRAME, other than the "alternate formats/markup" feature proposed for
OBJECT?

--
Todd Fahrner
mailto:fahrner@pobox.com
http://www.verso.com/agitprop/

Received on Wednesday, 29 July 1998 01:31:08 UTC