> > HTML was designed to be a "text-markup" language, not a
> "page design"
> > language. The purpose of the tags is not just to make the page look
> > good, but to help express the meaning of the document.
>
> Very important observation. But the problem is that HTML not
> only does
> not implement page design but also rides rough-shod over any
> attempt by
> the author to make the page look good--as (for example) anyone who has
> ever wanted to indent paragraphs can tell you. You can do
> it, but I've
> never seen a way that wasn't a hack. And this is just one of the more
> conspicuous examples.
>
Again, the language was never designed with page layout in mind. It will
certainly allow you to coerce it to get close to what you want, but things
like <TABLE>, <P> and <DIV> were *not* expected to be used for page layout.
To some extent CSS1 and CSS2 attempts to close this loop to allow things
like paragraph indent, large first letter, magazine-type layout &etc. I've
use styles in this regard with some success.
Whether we like it or not, traditional HTML does not support page layout,
and the authors would like to discourage us from using it as a page layout
tool. <FONT>, <B>, <I> and others have all been deprecated, and will be
removed from the specification in the future.
The bottom line: if you use HTML to format your page to enhance
*readability* through the judicious use of headers, paragraph breaks and
horizontal rules, then most of your readers will have only good things to
say.
If you use <FONT>, <TABLE> or clever combinations of <P><BR> and
non-breaking spaces, you are in for trouble.
To conclude, the SGML DTD that is HTML is incomplete as far as page layout
is concerned; then again, this was never a part of the specification. How
your engine renders a given page can result in amusing results. Stick to
the basics and you will have happiness until the end of your days.
'nuff said.
jdv
*************************************************************
To unsubscribe send a message to majordomo@faqs.org as
unsubscribe faq-maintainers fill-in-your-email-address-here
*************************************************************
[
FAQ Archive |
Search FAQ Mail Archive |
Authors |
Usenet References
]
[
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000
]
© Copyright The Internet FAQ Consortium, 1997-2000
All rights reserved