Christian Biesinger wrote:
Gus Richter wrote:
Responding in regards to what you originally said and not to have too
many different subjects in my response to Boris, here goes regarding
your:
"You say that as if there necessarily is such a specification..."
On first glance, my read was that you were toying with Tony by saying
that there may or may not be such a specification and that you were
withholding the answer (or did not know the answer), else were simply
trying to rub his funnybone.
I should clarify, I guess. That web browsers implement something does
not imply that there is a specification describing what they should
implement. In this particular case, to my knowledge, there is not such a
specification. It would, however, be nice if there was one.
There is a basic misunderstanding here. We aren't talking about (at
least I'm not) what browsers implement, what they should implement, nor
specifications about that.
The question as Tony read it, was as to how is it determined (by the web
developer, the browser developer, by anyone) what the element's default
type is (block type, or an inline type) if it isn't through the HTML
Specification, seeing as David had negated this.
I spoke up pointing out that it is indeed through the HTML Specification
and more specifically by the HTML DTD.
David seems to have understood me, although he points out that since the
Specification is inaccurate and unmaintained, it does not serve to use
it as a reference. This may have merit when discussing browser
development, since the default display type is already coded as reality
dictates, but consider talking web development, where the point may be
that with a Strict Doctype the author has an image as a child of body
and is told that this is not permitted since image is an inline element
and may not be a child of body. A reference will have to be given
showing that image is indeed an inline element. This is only one example
of where the reference to the HTML Specification and specifically to the
HTML DTD (Strict in this case) is made.
There is such a Specification, is nice to have and a necessity. I cannot
imagine how it could work without the spec stipulating which element is
of which default display type.
Regarding browser development, I visualize that in its conception stage,
the default display type (block or inline) had to be determined. The
only source of reference for this information was the HTML DTD.
Thereafter, reality set in and modifications had to be made as in the
case for NOSCRIPT.
--
Gus
_______________________________________________
dev-tech-layout mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-layout
