Subject: Re: The <PRE> tag
From: [email-masked] (Jim Whitescarver)
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 12:41:49 est

We are not stuck on the <PRE> tag, only the functionality.  If <p> at
the end gave us single spaced output, that would be acceptable though a
bit more work.  I've been unable to duplicate the effect using existing
tags.  Whatever name, (I'd prefer <PREFORMATTED>), the standard should
include an end tag </PRE>.  We don't support an end tag, but should.  I
attampted to translate ms documents to html, with some success, but,
equations (neqn) and tables (tbl), were close to impossible.  I'd like
to use preformatted for those sections alone, and not the whole document
(http://eies2.njit.edu/rakesh/paper.html).

The idea of new lines being significant is only repungnant in the case
of generating new hypertext.  The express purpose of <PRE> is to make
use of externally formated text where new lines ARE significant.

I used the <p> tags within <PRE> text in order to marginally support
browsers that do not understand <PRE>.  I'll be glad to provide a
version of manual pages without the <p>,  http://eies2.njit.edu:1234/man-p.
The long term value of mixing <p> within <PRE> is dubious at best.

The MidasWWW update for <PRE> looked nice and simple.  I look forward
to trying it!

Let's get a <PRE> capability into the standard so we can put anchors everywhere!

jim