Re: Display Properties of Elements

Lachlan Hunt wrote:

> 
> David Hammond wrote:
> 
>> I was pretty startled when I saw that XHTML 2.0 introduced two
>> versions each of the quote and code elements: one for inline and one
>> for block. I don't see why an element's implied display property
>> should have anything to do with its symantic value. I feel it's purely
>> presentational and the implied display value should only be part of a
>> default stylesheet, and not a property of the element itself.
> 
> I think I did a reasonable job of summing up the various questions and 
> attempted to answer some of them in this long post [3], however I 
> suggest you read (or at least skim) the enitre thread which will give 
> you a very good insight into the various arguments for and against.
> 
> [3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/2003Dec/0123.html

I think this bit is key:

  | A block element generally indicates a logical division or section
  | large enough to stand on its own, whereas the inline equivalents
  | generally contain smaller fragments that don't necessarily make
  | sense out of the context of their containing element.

Nesting an inline fragment of code inside a section doesn't convey the
same structure as a block-level code element. The one implies an inline
fragment inside a larger block which just happens to not have any content
in it. The other is an independent block-of-code (rather than code-in-block).

An inline code fragment is something that is part of the running text of
a paragraph, part of a sentence. A block of code is something referenced
by the surrounding text but not read inline, as it were.

~fantasai

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Received on Thursday, 29 July 2004 07:06:53 UTC