expected of a person who is proofing and marking up text.

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:06 AM, Lee Passey <lee@novomail.net> wrote:

On Mon, February 27, 2012 3:45 am, Robert Gibbins wrote:
> Jim Adcock wrote on Fri Feb 17 (somewhat precised by me):
>
>>... the common PG/DP approach which I think is being generated by guiguts
> is not bad:
>>...
>>... <style type="text/css">
>>... .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em;
> text-indent: -3em;}
>>... .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em;
> text-indent: -3em;}
>>... .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em;
> text-indent: -3em;}
>>... </style>
>>...
>>... <div class="poem">
>>... <div class="stanza">
>>... <span class="i0">There was a young man of St. Kitts,<br /></span>
>>... <span class="i0">Who was very much troubled with fits;<br /></span>
>>... <span class="i2"> The eclipse of the moon<br /></span>
>>... <span class="i2"> Threw him into a swoon;<br /></span>
>>... <span class="i0">Where he tumbed and broke into bits.<br /></span>
>>... </div>
>>... </div>
>
> The abstraction of a "line" which would ideally be displayed on one line of
> a small device, but with extra wrap-indent when it cannot, seems extremely
> useful (for those machines on which it works).
> A couple of questions though:
> 1. Is there an obvious reason not to use:
> div.i0 {margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}, etc
> and
> <div class="i0">There was a young man...</div>, etc?

No. According to the HTML spec, "[The <DIV> and <SPAN>] elements define
content to be inline (SPAN) or block-level (DIV) but impose no other
presentational idioms on the content." Other than hiding a section of text
("display:none") there is no reason to set the display attribute of either
element; just use the correct one to begin with.

> Somehow using a tag which is inherently a block seems more simple and
> obvious than using a span with {display: block;}

True.

> 2. Is there an unstated reason/convention for describing an indent of 1em as
> class=i2, 2em as class=i4, etc? This is not a trick question, I ask from
> curiosity/ignorance.

While clearly ugly, the use of non-breaking spaces to offset lines is more
flexible that using CSS. I tend to avoid CSS for styling in those instances
where the presentation /must not/ vary.

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