question about the BODY tag in the HTML DTD

In the DTD of HTML 4.01, <http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/sgml/dtd.html>,
it states that the only legal elements in the BODY element are block
tags (and a few more: SCRIPT, INS and DEL):

<!ELEMENT BODY O O (%block;|SCRIPT)+ +(INS|DEL) -- document body -->

These block elements are the following:

<!ENTITY % block
"P | %heading; | %list; | %preformatted; | DL | DIV | NOSCRIPT |
BLOCKQUOTE | FORM | HR | TABLE | FIELDSET | ADDRESS">

Where %heading; is the tags H1 to H6, %list; is UL and OL, and
%preformatted; is PRE.

That is all.

So, if I get this correctly, it is not legal to put text, or inline
elements (text formatting, SPAN) directly into a BODY tag. None of these
tags are implied. Yet, people do it all the time.

What gives? Am I misunderstanding the spec, or a people doing it wrong?

--
Bart.

Bart Lateur <bart.lateur (AT) pandora (DOT) be> writes:

So, if I get this correctly, it is not legal to put text, or inline
elements (text formatting, SPAN) directly into a BODY tag.

I'm too lazy to check, but that's my recollection too. Also, IIRC the
w3c HTML validator will warn on these cases.

None of these tags are implied. Yet, people do it all the time.

What gives? Am I misunderstanding the spec, or a people doing it wrong?

People are doing it wrong. But since it mostly works, they'll keep on
doing it. This also goes for all the other places where non-blocks
aren't allowed.

--
Joost Diepenmaat | blog: http://joost.zeekat.nl/ | work: http://zeekat.nl/

Bart Lateur wrote:

In the DTD of HTML 4.01, <http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/sgml/dtd.html>,
it states that the only legal elements in the BODY element are block
tags (and a few more: SCRIPT, INS and DEL):

!ELEMENT BODY O O (%block;|SCRIPT)+ +(INS|DEL) -- document body --

These block elements are the following:

!ENTITY % block
"P | %heading; | %list; | %preformatted; | DL | DIV | NOSCRIPT |
BLOCKQUOTE | FORM | HR | TABLE | FIELDSET | ADDRESS"

Where %heading; is the tags H1 to H6, %list; is UL and OL, and
%preformatted; is PRE.

That is all.

So, if I get this correctly, it is not legal to put text, or inline
elements (text formatting, SPAN) directly into a BODY tag. None of these
tags are implied. Yet, people do it all the time.

People also exceed the speed limit and fail to declare gambling winnings
to the tax authorities.

What gives? Am I misunderstanding the spec, or a people doing it wrong?

In earlier HTML it was OK, and it's still OK in HTML 4.01 Transitional,
but not in Strict.

Bart Lateur wrote:

In the DTD of HTML 4.01, <http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/sgml/dtd.html>,
it states that the only legal elements in the BODY element are block
tags (and a few more: SCRIPT, INS and DEL):

[...]

So, if I get this correctly, it is not legal to put text, or inline
elements (text formatting, SPAN) directly into a BODY tag. None of these
tags are implied. Yet, people do it all the time.

What gives? Am I misunderstanding the spec, or a people doing it wrong?

People are either doing it wrong, or else using a transitional doctype
where it is allowed.

Nick


--
Nick Theodorakis
nick_theodorakis (AT) hotmail (DOT) com
contact form:
http://theodorakis.net/contact.html

On 8 Apr, 20:36, Bart Lateur <bart.lat... (AT) pandora (DOT) be> wrote:

What gives? Am I misunderstanding the spec, or a people doing it wrong?

This is correct (but just for 4 Strict, not 3.2 or Transitional) and
most coders do indeed use it wrongly.

The intention is a clear and simple one, if only you're aware of it.
%inline; elements are considered to be "bare" and without well-managed
container boxes, so shouldn't be placed naked onto a page.

You can even extend this attitude so that %inline; content shouldn't
be used in a %block; context in general. This isn't expressed in the
DTD, because most contexts accept %flow; rather than %block; alone.
However mixing inline and block elements as siblings is not a
recommended practice, certainly not at the higher scale of the DOM.

As a specific example, I often float <div> around on a page (image/
caption containers) to avoid the rigid grid look of simple CSS
layouts. It's also necessary to place a HTML element after these with
clear used to tidy up after the floating. I used to use a <br> for
this. That worked fine, and because they were all contained in overall
<div> anyway, it was even valid. However I now regard it as
inappropriate, so I use <hr> instead (with some CSS to make the usual
horizontal rule disappear).