HTML+, tables, math, lists

Denys Duchier (dduchier@csi.uottawa.ca)
Wed, 3 Nov 93 19:52:39 -0500


I use HTML and xmosaic as a delivery mechanism for lecture notes and I
should like to encourage developers not to give up too soon on some of
the fancier bits in the HTML+ proposal.

1. I dearly miss tables. I'd rather have a less ambitious table
mechanism than none at all. For example, I could easily do without
the "row spanning" capability; I would be happy to supply the width
of a text cell (or column) in, say, em units; etc...

2. I am desperate for some simple math capability, e.g. subscripts,
superscripts, fractions, sums, ... I wish more symbols were made
available, e.g. math symbols and greek letters; also `prime' -- I
really miss that one a lot.

3. I _really_need_ control over the labeling of items in a list. The
HTML+ proposal suggests that LI should have a SRC attribute. While
this is a good idea, in the vast majority of cases, I simply want
to supply a string to use as the label (e.g. "2b.i"). Could we
please give LI an N attribute wich could be used to specify an
explicit label, e.g. <LI N="2b.i">. [I think TEI also suggests a
LABEL element that can serve as an alternative way of specifying an
item's label].

--Denys