Recommended HTML Usage

These constructs should work even on pretty broken implementations.

Text Elements

Most text elements consist of a start tag, some content, and an end tag. A start tag is an identifier surrouded by angle brackets. An end tag is an open angle bracket, a slash, an identifier, and a close bracket.

An identifier should be a letter followed by up to 7 letters or numbers.

No spaces are allowed between the tag open bracket and the identifier. Space is allowed between the identifier and the close bracket.

Some elements are "empty" and consist of only a start tag.

Paragraphs are separated by the "P" element.

Six levels of headings are supported:

Level three heading

Level four heading

five

six

Unordered lists:

This is the first item of an unordered list.
This is the second item. It's kinda long, and should wrap around on most screens.
This is the third item. It's only one paragraph, but it's got a paragraph tag at the end.
This is the fourth and final item.

Ordered lists:

This is the first item of an unordered list.
This is the second item. It's kinda long, and should wrap around on most screens.
This is the third item -- you know, the one with the P element.
This is the fourth and final item.

term: definition
another term: and its definition

The address element indicates the author or source of the document.

DWC

connolly@convex.com

Normal Text: PCDATA

Normal text is represented in HTML as parsed character data, #PCDATA. The characters '<', '>', and '&' should be represented as "<", ">", and "&" respectively, lest they be interpreted as markup. Lines should not exceed 72 characters. Line breaks have no significance except to separate words.

Literal Text: RCDATA

Sections of literal text are represented in HTML as replaceable character data. Line breaks are significant, and characters are rendered in a fixed-width font to preserve horizontal formatting.

This is literal text. THIS word should line up under THIS word. There should be exactly three blank lines between here and here. The '&' character should be represented as "&". The character sequence "</" must be represented as "</". The character sequence "]]>" must represented as "]]>". SGML tags look like <start> and </end>. The marked section close delimiter looks like ]]>. But ]] is just two close square brackets, and > is just a greater-than sign.

Document Description Elements

The TITLE element names the document. The content of the TITLE element is just character data, CDATA. It should be less than 72 characters, and it should contain no linebreaks, '<', '>', or '&' characters.

The ISINDEX tag appears at most one time, and it precedes all tags but TITLE and NEXTID.

Elements with Attributes

Some elements have associated named attributes. The values of the attributes of an element are specified in its start tag.

Attribute values are represented as RCDATA surrounded by double quotes. The character '"' must be represented as """ in an attribute value literal. The NEXTID tag appears at most one time, after the title and before the text elements.