Geoff Deering wrote: I am talking about CSS applied to HTML and the rendering of the CSS as applied to the parsing of the document. But still, strictly speaking, an XML based document is bound to be more semantically correct because it is well formed. This means that the CSS can be applied without fear of the parser misunderstanding where a declaration could have finished. [Snip]
Paul Connolley wrote: You are talking about two distinctly different parsers. XHTML is a XML subset, HTML is an SGML subset.
For example:
[Snip example]
In HTML it will not. With the SGML parser it knows that when it arrives
at a new <li> it is the beginning of a new list item. The same would
apply, for example, to a <p> paragraph.
[Snip]
You shouldn't try to argue about parsing when they are parsed by two different types
of engines.
But that is entirely my point.
No. Your points:
- Rendering of CSS when applied to a document - XML being more semantic because it is well formed - Parsers misunderstanding element declarations
Well-formedness is, in this context, a XML concept. A SGML document (hence a HTML) is well formed whether you omit an end tag or not. I repeat, an SGML parser will not be confused when presented by two paragraphs which are not closed yet adjacent. CSS rules follow almost entirely exactly apart from a number of exceptions. This is what I believe you were referring to. It is wrong to confuse people about missing end tags as it is not the issue when it comes to rendering CSS.
I'm a huge advocate of XHTML. I use it everyday in semantic design but I never tell anyone that HTML is less semantic because that is poppytosh. XML and SGML specifications are as semantic as you decide to make them. I know people who create perfectly valid XHTML but their pages make no use of headings, lists, blockquotes or the like. Valid but not semantic.
-- Paul Connolley SQL/Systems Programmer Egocentric - http://egocentric.co.uk
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