create a TAB ?

[Harlan Messinger]

Doug Miller wrote:
Oh, I see. Apparently you think tab stops didn't exist prior to CSS 2.1.
<sigh/> I said in the first place that tab stops aren't defined in HTML,
so OBVIOUSLY THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT. Then you responded by telling me
that they were defined IN CSS 2.1 which is, by all reason either (a) an
amplification, by which you were confirming that they weren't in HTML,
and it was CSS that provided them, or (b) a complete non sequitur.

If you wish to insist that they are provided by HTML, then why don't you
show us where in the *H*T*M*L* spec they are defined, instead of where
in the C*S*S spec they are defined? Unless they are defined in the HTML
spec, THEY ARE NOT PART OF HTML.
They do get a mention in the HTML spec, in the section about PRE:

The horizontal tab character (decimal 9 in [ISO10646] [p.353] and
[ISO88591] [p.354] ) is usually interpreted by visual user agents as
the smallest non-zero number of spaces necessary to line characters
up along tab stops that are every 8 characters. We strongly
discourage using horizontal tabs in preformatted text since it is
common practice, when editing, to set the tab-spacing to other
values, leading to misaligned documents.

But it's less encouraging for would-be tab users than what we find in
the CSS spec.

Thanks! That's all I asked for. I don't understand why Doug thought that
citing a section of CSS 2.1 was a way to correct my (mistakenly)
impression that tab stops weren't defined in HTML.

Ummmm.... go back and read that again. I am not the one who cited a section of
CSS 2.1. That was someone else.

Sorry, you're right about that.

On the other hand, given that I was operating off of what Ben had said
about CSS 2.1, you didn't come through with anything to counter the
impression that Ben had left that CSS 2.1 is where they were introduced,
which is why I didn't just accept it on your say-so.

I do apologize for the confusion that was probably caused by my
conflating the two of you.

 

[Doug Miller]

Ben C wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
Oh, I see. Apparently you think tab stops didn't exist prior to CSS 2.1.
<sigh/> I said in the first place that tab stops aren't defined in HTML,
so OBVIOUSLY THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT. Then you responded by telling me
that they were defined IN CSS 2.1 which is, by all reason either (a) an
amplification, by which you were confirming that they weren't in HTML,
and it was CSS that provided them, or (b) a complete non sequitur.

If you wish to insist that they are provided by HTML, then why don't you
show us where in the *H*T*M*L* spec they are defined, instead of where
in the C*S*S spec they are defined? Unless they are defined in the HTML
spec, THEY ARE NOT PART OF HTML.
They do get a mention in the HTML spec, in the section about PRE:

The horizontal tab character (decimal 9 in [ISO10646] [p.353] and
[ISO88591] [p.354] ) is usually interpreted by visual user agents as
the smallest non-zero number of spaces necessary to line characters
up along tab stops that are every 8 characters. We strongly
discourage using horizontal tabs in preformatted text since it is
common practice, when editing, to set the tab-spacing to other
values, leading to misaligned documents.

But it's less encouraging for would-be tab users than what we find in
the CSS spec.
Thanks! That's all I asked for. I don't understand why Doug thought that
citing a section of CSS 2.1 was a way to correct my (mistakenly)
impression that tab stops weren't defined in HTML.

Ummmm.... go back and read that again. I am not the one who cited a section of
CSS 2.1. That was someone else.

Sorry, you're right about that.

Thank you.

On the other hand, given that I was operating off of what Ben had said
about CSS 2.1, you didn't come through with anything to counter the
impression that Ben had left that CSS 2.1 is where they were introduced,
which is why I didn't just accept it on your say-so.

I do apologize for the confusion that was probably caused by my
conflating the two of you.

Accepted.