Re: [CSS3 Text] Re: controlling tab size

On 8/8/07, Bert Bos <bert@w3.org> wrote:
> If you have a file with tabs that are not 8 characters apart, you can
> use "expand" (under Unix) to convert the tabs to spaces before you add
> the HTML mark-up.

Very true, that always works if you are picky about the look. But it
won't help much when inputting code in online editors like
http://codepress.org/ ...

http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/ simply preventDefaults tab and inserts 4
spaces instead. So it still works if you really want it to.

> The TABcharacter in ASCII is a control code, like formfeed (FF),
> carriage return (CR), line feed (LF) or escape (ESC). They used to
> control the movement of printers. CR and LF still make sense as line
> separators (in <pre>), because it's more convenient to type a LF than
> tags such as <l>...</l>. But FF, TAB and ESC (and BEL, BS, etc.) are
> not needed for HTML and similar documents.

Oh yes, I remember. Especially x07 BELL. How fun isn't a character
that makes a sound? I still think TAB is used alot these days. To
indent code, if nothing else.

> It is true that we are missing a type of tabular layout in CSS level 2
> that allows overflow into the next column, e.g., like this:
>
>     Short item . . . . . . . . . . 12345.67
>     Another short item . . . . . . .  12.34
>     An item with a description that is too
>       wide for one column  . . . .  1234.56

That is true... maybe it could be done with white-space:pre? That
causes overflow with too long lines. If I understand you correctly, at
least...

Niklas :-)

Received on Thursday, 9 August 2007 13:22:46 UTC