Re: When to use <p></p>

Michael Godsey (mgodsey@microsoft.com)
Tue, 19 Dec 95 08:45:10 TZ


Message-ID: red-63-msg951219164656MTP[01.51.00]000000b1-44391

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| From: lilley <lilley@afs.mcc.ac.uk>

| > <P> is not a container object, so there is no </P>. You can throw it
| > in, and most browsers won't mind. It's not a required element, though.
| > <P> is just a paragraph seperator, not a container.
| On the contrary, such misinformation is damaging. Please check your
| sources before posting answers. I refer you to RFC 1866.
|
| For anyone that was confused:

Thanks for clearing up the confusion I started. That'll teach me to be
more precise. In the interest of trying to clear up a very common
"newbie confusion" question I get a LOT (not implying the original
poster was a newbie - I just intrepreted the question as being more
simplistic than the original intent), I choose to speak in a more
conversational tone. Back in the "good 'ole days" this was easier to
do, in part because HTML was much less confusing. There weren't a
gazillion extensions being bantered about, and people generally knew
they were either coding to the 'standard' or using those heathenistic
'extensions'. It ain't so easy now.

I wish to *goodness* I had never used the term "container" in my reply.
I'm used to speaking to all different levels of users, and have
slipped into a more metaphoric way of describing HTML, and sometimes
the metaphoric terms actually have a more precise technical meaning.

Anyway, my intent was only to show that in most cases (and since the
question seemed pretty general, I figured it wasn't worth trying to
eludicate on the various cases where the exception would hold) the
ENDING TAG for the PARAGRAPH ELEMENT was optional. Simple enough, had
I said it that way.

Of course, if I have again mis-spoken, I trust all of the sharp-eyed
residents here will correct me ;->

(But please, read peoples replies before doing so - we don't all need
to hear the same admonsihment over and over.)