RE: CSS equivalent to the NOBR tag?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew n marshall [mailto:amarshal@usc.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, September 27, 1998 8:06 PM
> To: braden@endoframe.com
> Cc: W3C HTML Mailing List
> Subject: RE: CSS equivalent to the NOBR tag?

[snip]

> I am not talking about intrinsic properties of the data.  In the
> examples I
> mentioned originally (proper names, titles, and hyperlinks) there are no
> >>general<< problems with adding a line break between words.  Is only
> >>specific<< 'problems' with regards to certain layouts.

Could you give a specific example? I don't agree with your assessment based
on the above. If, say, a proper name should not have a line break in a
certain place where a space separates characters, then that is exactly the
place for a non-breaking space. This is not a problem particular to a
certain layout--a line break should never occur at that point, and a
non-breaking space ensures it won't. Similar holds true for hyphens in URLs.
Could you describe a situation where a break would be appropriate for one
layout, and inappropriate for another?

> I recognize that style sheets are only suggestions.  My point is
> there is no
> way to even describe this suggestion in CSS.

And mine is that this isn't the kind of thing you want to suggest--it's the
kind of thing that you want to require.

> > Your point about search engines, etc. has some validity, but if
> software is
> > deficient it should be amended. I don't think the solution is
> to hose our
> > content to accommodate buggy software.
>
> Agreed.  But given the state of some parsers....

A software problem, and not an insurmountable one.

> > > The other HTML element whose layout cannot be defined without
> > > this is <CODE>.
> >
> > I don't understand--CODE is not defined in any HTML specification as
> > preserving whitespace.
>
> Then that is my misunderstanding.  Even so, I found a possible alternative
> problem for this particular situation: the xml:space attribute.

I am not familiar with it, so I can't comment.

Braden

<http://www.endoframe.com>

Received on Sunday, 27 September 1998 22:08:13 UTC