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Thanks Tim - I think this helps (me) considerably :-) In message <3.0.32.19970826103807.00ab0e60@p...> Tim Bray writes: [...] > > Well DEFAULT is 'irrelevant' in that it expresses no opinion about what > should be done with whitespace. the PRESERVE value exists to support so when might it be used (in preference to a stylesheet, for example?) > constructs like HTML's <PRE>. Yes, putting XML-SPACE="PRESERVE" on Since the whitespace is all passed, presumably a stylesheet is capable of keeping it all? > something with element content is at the least questionable; but the > fact that this can be used to do something stupid does not mean it > isn't useful. It sounds as if there isn't really very much need for XML-SPACE, and maybe that has distorted my viewpoint... > > >At present we have (at least) the viewpoints: > > - whitespace matters and authors must define precisely what they want > > in a document. The SGML community can understand and manage > > whitespace. If newcomers find it difficult, they'll have to > > learn the rules, or use proper tools. > > Well, they only have to learn one rule: the whitespace you put in > the document is the whitespace that is in the document. XML neither > addeth nor taketh away. Understood. It is also the whitespace that your authoring tool puts in :-) > > - most of the people who will want to use XML will graduate from HTML. > > This has 'taught' them that whitespace is not significant and > > gets normalised somewhere. They will start creating XML by > > analogy with HTML. XML will not succeed unless we can > > offer some support for this transitional period. > > Uh, if they are using it for browser applications, I am quite sure that > browsers, while doing XML, will duplicate the HTML whitespace semantics, > i.e. eat most of it, and people will just not notice the difference. > Another way to say this is that the "HTML" whitespace semantic should > probably be renamed the "browser" whitespace semantic. > > It would be a good and useful thing to write down (precisely) what > that browser semantic is; it's a little subtler than you'd think. I think this is the key to much of this discussion. (I am under no illusions that it may be subtler than I can think :-) It was certainly true that early HTML browsers could display whitespace very differently and I imagine that there are still differences. So - with Tim's encouragement - this seems like a useful thing to aim for. This semantic seems to be one of the things we are chasing. P. -- Peter Murray-Rust, domestic net connection Virtual School of Molecular Sciences http://www.vsms.nottingham.ac.uk/ xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ To unsubscribe, send to majordomo@i... the following message; unsubscribe xml-dev List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@i...)
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