On Sunday 2004.11.21 00:06:31 -0800, Doug Ewell wrote: > E. Keown <k underscore isoetc at yahoo dot com> wrote: > > > What's the point, really, of going far beyond, even > > beyond CSS, into XHTML, where few computational > > Hebraists have gone before? > > > > Sorry, but I think this stuff is the least interesting > > thing one can do on a computer....(no offense). Well, > > COBOL was my worst experience so far... > > You are right. There shouldn't be any need to resort to fancy tricks, > or even XHTML (which is by no means fancy), just to display Hebrew > properly on a variety of browsers. That was your original question. >
I beg to differ with Doug Ewell here: Using XHTML and some very basic CSS1 is not, in my opinion, "resorting to fancy tricks". XHTML is very simple to do correctly, and more consistent than HTML 4.01. Philip Verdy also provided some good advice on what a CSS class for Hebrew might look like. XHTML has a consistent set of rules that apply across all tags : I would argue that this is *easier* to learn and stick to than old-style HTML. And proper use of CSS really allows one to separate one's content from the display of that content. For me, the combination of XHTML and CSS is so much easier than what I used to suffer through in the bad old days of HTML before CSS came along ... I do agree with Doug that validation using the W3C.org or similar validator is absolutely essential. But this thread is getting off-topic. The intent of my original post was merely to suggest Elaine take a look at using XHTML, CSS, and UTF-8 for her documents. > I think the most important thing, if you want to ensure correct > operation on as many platforms as possible, is to validate your HTML > using the W3C Markup Validation Service: > > http://validator.w3.org/ > > That will keep you from accidentally using browser-specific tricks and > ensure that your HTML is clean. Most browsers will behave correctly > when handed clean HTML. > > Beyond that, you might want to specify a font family using CSS (doesn't > have to be in a separate CSS file, either) to improve the odds that the > reader will see Hebrew instead of hollow boxes, but this is optional. > > -Doug Ewell > Fullerton, California > http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/ > > > > >
