[whatwg] <font> and style=''

[Henri Sivonen]

http://whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-font

The definition of <font> and style='' seems like a compromise that  
isn't good for either side of the style='' debate. Can it be  
reconsidered, please?

Using <font style=''> as a block container is less backwards  
compatible than <div style=''>. (Test case for Gecko DOM Inspector:  
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/test/wa10/adhoc/block-in-font.html ) Using  
<font style=''> for the inline case makes a political point but  
offers no technical benefit over <span style=''> which the guilty  
tools are already emitting.

Therefore, I suggest allowing style='' on <div> and <span>. OTOH,  
there's no point in reintroducing <font> if its HTML 3.2-compatible  
attributes are not conforming.

Furthermore, I suggest allowing style='' on all elements, because  
only allowing it on <div> and <span> would only move WYSIWYG output  
even more to the direction of Karl Dubost's caricature of HTML 6.0.

P.S. I don't like style='', either. I just don't think it could be  
eradicated without giving rise to something equally bad or worse.

P.P.S. On IRC, Tantek Çelik suggested reading the discussions that  
the XHTML 2.0 folks had on this topic instead of having the same  
discussions all over again.

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen at iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/