Vocabulary
This specification uses the words
below with the precise meaning given.
- Representation
- The encoding of information
for interchange. For example, HTML
is a representation of hypertext.
- Rendering
- The form of presentation
to information to the human reader.
Imperatives
- may
- The implementation is not obliged
to follow this in any way.
- must
- If this is not followed, the
implementation does not conform to
this specification.
- shall
- as "must"
- should
- If this is not followed, though
the implementation officially conforms
to the standard, undesirable results
may occur in practice.
- typical
- Typical rendering is described
for many elements. This is not a
mandatory part of the standard but
is given as guidance for designers
and to help explain the uses for
which the elements were intended.
Sections marked "Note:" are not mandatory
parts of the specification but for
guidance only.
Status of features
- Mandatory
- These features must be
implemented in the rendering. Features
are mandatory unless otherwise mentioned.
- Optional
- Standard HTML features which
may safely be ignored by parsers.
It is legal to ignore these, treat
the contents as though the tags were
not there. (e.g. EM, and processing
instructions) . Authors should be
awarethat these features may be ignored
by some applications.
- Proposed
- The specification of these
features is not final. They should
not be regarded as part ofthe standard,
but indicate possible directions
for future versions.
- Obsolete
- Not standard HTML. Parsers
should implement these features as
far as possible in order to preserve
back-compatibility with previous
versions of this specification.