[whatwg] [br] element should not be a line break

[Thomas Koetter]

-----Original Message-----
From: timeless.bmo2 at gmail.com [mailto:timeless.bmo2 at gmail.com] On Behalf Of timeless
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 5:07 PM
> If you haven't taken the time to read the FAQ in its entirety, I'd
suggest that you take the time to do so.

> http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/FAQ#Why_are_some_presentational_elements_like_.3Cb.3E.2C_.3Ci.3E_and_.3Csmall.3E_still_included.3F

> The short form is that part of HTML5 is documenting how HTML1..4
works, so that browsers can support existing content by implementing
the HTML5 specification. Changing how an existing entity from HTML1..4
works would result in browsers which do not properly render content
from HTML1..4 which is not acceptable....

Thanks for the hint about the FAQ.

Regarding the br element I believe that my suggestion does just that. It supports existing content by defaulting br to be displayed as a line break. But going forward br would be considered a minor logical break inside a paragraph. Presentation could be changed from the default line break to some generated content. Now seems to be a good time to implement such a change in the semantics. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hr went through a very similar change.