Re: feature for HTML

|On Mon, 15 Feb 1999, Inanis Brooke wrote:
|>> Why not have some tags which are only executed when one prints in
|>> order to have some What You See Is What You Get.
|> I think he does have an interesting idea.
|
|Can already be done using CSS. Suggest you ask in ciwas for more info.
|
|HTML is a *structural* markup language. As such, concepts of target media
|and so on do not belong there (even the "media" attribute on "link" is
|pushing it a bit).

Thanks again for the info. My concern, however, pertained not only to
specifying to the UA which part of a page should be printed and which
shouldn't, but also which should be printed in WHICH ORDER. For example,
with MOST layouts (with tabls instead of absolute positioning,) a copyright
notice, for example, existing in the lower-left-hand corner of the page,
which should be printed, would appear ABOVE the main content, as that is how
HTML tables are structured. However, if there were a <print order=2> tag
preceeding the copyright notice, and <print order=1> preceeding the main
content you want printed (each section closed with </print>), the copyright
notice would appear on the bottom of the printed page, where it
traditionally is placed.
However, thinking hard about it, I guess it doesn't matter much: it's an
idea that would be nice if we had now, but if CSS becomes an accepted
standard in upcoming browsers, then a <print order=x> system will be
completely unecessary, and CSS will likely be implemented far earlier than
any <print order=x> system. I just thought it would bring more structure
into the document, much in the style of list elements, as those brought
structure into text, allowing for outlines to be made. This was available in
the original HTML, so I thought it my idea would be a nice thing to have
around also... but as I said, but the time anything proposed right now would
be implemented, CSS would already be an accepted standard.

Thanks for the info, and for your patience, everyone.

Daniel [inanis (edf)

Received on Wednesday, 17 February 1999 23:13:15 UTC