[WEB4LIB] Re: CSS-2 "solution" and Font Tags

Thu Apr 19 13:52:22 EDT 2001

> I really don't understand why font tags are deprecated.  It seems to
> me that CSS limit and/or complicate HTML coding.  To have to nest font
> instructions up front makes it difficult to make minor variations on
> one's theme that just rub my hide raw.  For example:  nesting font
> instructions inside <P> tags:  what if I want some paragraphs separate
> and some I don't want a blank space in between.  And then, of course,
> if you have many tags nested....   re:  <P><STRONG><I>...  Grr.  And
> then let's put some of the text in a table.  Oh, goody.  Ever seen
> what the differences are there between Netscape and IE?
>

You're answering your own question by showing how messy the HTML markup
becomes when you try to make it describe presentation.  You're also
blaming the technology for one notably inept implementation of it (for
which there are many workarounds easily found on the net).

is deprecated because it is not a part of any document's structure.
CSS was created as a way to have one language to describe document
structure (HTML) and another to describe document appearance (CSS). This
is also why <CENTER> is deprecated, along with all color-related
attributes, and why the HTML spec specifically discourages using <TABLE>
to lay out documents.

IMO, is both underpowered and convoluted to work with. Abandoning
it allows, for example, this though process.

1. My document has 750 occurrences of something like '<li>Journal of
Foo</li>'. I have to make sure that each of the 750
occurrences has all of these tags, that they're all nested properly, and
that I didn't miss any end tags.

2.  On reflection, I realize that I use that markup for every entry in a
list of journal titles.

3. If my markup were simply '<li class="journal-title">Journal of
Foo</li>' I wouldn't go blind trying to edit my document.

4.  My boss just asked me to change all the journal titles from bold, blue
Garamond to normal weight, green Times New Roman.  Now I only have to edit
one or two lines in my stylesheet.

5.  Hey, I also just discovered that I can fool around with the width of
my list, vertical white space, background colors, small caps, margins,
hanging indents, borders, images for the bullets in my list, etc. etc.

6.  I also also just discovered that I can make this change simultaneously
apply to all 72 documents I have that list journal titles...

I have always believed that presentational HTML markup wasn't bad just
because it deals with presentation, but because it's such a poor a tool
for doing so.

Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu