Re: draft-ietf-html-style-00.txt

David Seibert (seibert@hep.physics.mcgill.ca)
Wed, 6 Dec 1995 16:15:19 -0500 (EST)


On Wed, 6 Dec 1995, Glenn Adams wrote:

> Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 19:56:00 +0100
> From: Bert Bos <Bert.Bos@sophia.inria.fr>
>
> 2. No style properties in attributes (STYLE="...")
>
> The argument for (2) is that it leads to bad design. It may also be a
> little bit less efficient for future sophisticated browsers. But some
> people want this facility, so I guess we just have to accept this in
> HTML.
>
> It seems to me that IETF WGs work on a consensus basis. I don't believe
> there is a consensus on a STYLE attribute. Some people oppose it quite
> strongly. Therefore, it should be removed. "Some people want this" doesn't
> cut it!

I agree with Glenn. Since the goal is to have HTML 3.0 be a "final"
version, it makes sense to include facilities for any type-setting
effect, no matter how few people want it. Thus, if allowing style
properties in attributes was necessary to achieve some effect, then it
would make sense to allow this no matter how many people didn't like it.
However, this is not a necessity but only a convenience, since the same
effect can also be obtained by pre-declaring elements of different
classes, so there is no strong argument for allowing it.

David

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