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Subject: 
Re: Usable HTML tags (Was: 202 FAQ items posted to lugnet.faq)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.faq
Date: 
Thu, 15 Jul 1999 22:45:35 GMT
Viewed: 
3872 times
  
In lugnet.faq, Todd Lehman writes:
1.  there is accidental space around the 'foo' in

  <a href="xxx"> foo </a>

which will cause the links to display improperly.  Really it should say

  <a href="xxx">foo</a>

for proper links.

Accidental to you maybe, but it was no accident to me. I left space on either
side of anchor text to make it more readable. I did that because right now
everyone is limited to reading raw FAQ entries.

2.  All of the URLs are written out twice.  Is that really necessary?

Yes. If the formatting and unformatting tools are written, they will strip out
HTML tags when generating the plain-text FAQ. In order for the URL to be in the
plain-text FAQ it has to appear as plain text.

3.  In the first example (article #594), why not something like this
   instead?--

<p>To get either of these sensors, go to the
<a href="http://www.legoworldshop.com/">LEGO&reg; World Shop</a>, then
select your region and country, then choose LEGO&reg; MindStorms.</p>
[...]

I guess I just answered that (-:  The URLs have to appear explicitly, and
explicit URLs as direct or indirect objects in prose are grammatically awkward.

http://www.lugnet.com/faq/?n=554

Ahh, that's a perfect example, IMHO.  :)  Alternatively, though, couldn't
it be written in italics and carry the same mental-weight?

I wanted it to appear seperate from the discussion, with actual white space on
all four sides. In other words, I prefer the way I did it only on personal
aesthetic grounds.

[...] But (I think) it really makes the most sense only when, like you
said, when the URL has to appear as plain text for whatever reason. [...]

Yeah, it's clearly an aesthetic argument and I think the majority (which
includes you) will eventually win. Which is as it should be (-:

I just thought of another idea though, which is to do "normal" links in the
body of the text and have a list of explicit URLs at the end, kind of like a
footnotes list. The list of URLs would be to benefit those users who can't
simply click on the links, which includes users who read it as a text-only FAQ.

- Robert Munafo



Message has 4 Replies:
  Re: Usable HTML tags (Was: 202 FAQ items posted to lugnet.faq)
 
Okay, I've got a little more on the BLOCKQUOTE issue now. I had to load the entire newsgroup on my local machine and use my special MIRA tools to search it in order to figure this out. Here are the only non-Robert-Munafo FAQ answers that use (...) (25 years ago, 15-Jul-99, to lugnet.faq)
  Re: Usable HTML tags (Was: 202 FAQ items posted to lugnet.faq)
 
(...) Couldn't these theoretical tools be a little smarter? (25 years ago, 16-Jul-99, to lugnet.faq)
  Re: Usable HTML tags (Was: 202 FAQ items posted to lugnet.faq)
 
(...) Aha! OK, forgive me -- I assumed it was either an accident or some penchant for doing that sort of thing. Looking at your web pages (which I love, BTW!), of course, you don't have anything weird at all like that there, so that ruled out the (...) (25 years ago, 16-Jul-99, to lugnet.faq)
  Re: Usable HTML tags (Was: 202 FAQ items posted to lugnet.faq)
 
Robert Munafo: (...) The HTML-to-text converter already exists (lynx -dump), and it inserts footnote-like[1] references in the text, so there isn't a serious need for repeating URL's as plain text. Play well, Jacob ---...--- -- E-mail: (...) (25 years ago, 16-Jul-99, to lugnet.faq)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Usable HTML tags (Was: 202 FAQ items posted to lugnet.faq)
 
(...) 1. there is accidental space around the 'foo' in <a href="xxx"> foo </a> which will cause the links to display improperly. Really it should say <a href="xxx">foo</a> for proper links. 2. All of the URLs are written out twice. Is that really (...) (25 years ago, 15-Jul-99, to lugnet.faq)

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