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 Posted by Els on 01/14/06 12:52 
Jukka K. Korpela wrote: 
 
> Els <els.aNOSPAM@tiscali.nl> wrote: 
>  
>> If you just enclose your entire page in one div, it might save you 
>> some code, depending on how many loose images you have in it. 
>  
> You save more code by using HTML 4.01 Transitional, which allows "loose"  
> content inside body and does not require all end tags. 
>  
> If you wish to comply with a Strict DOCTYPE, then it's rather pointless to  
> use <body><div>...</div></body>, since the _idea_ in Strict is to put text  
> and inline markup inside _suitable_ blocks. If you don't care about the idea,  
> you could use Transitional, which does not require the pointless 
> <div> and </div> tags. 
 
You're probably right about the Strict rules, but I think that having 
loose images in a page isn't quite the same as switching to 
Transitional altogether. 
I always have my pages in a div, simply because I like to have the 
option to add a border, a margin. I always have <body><div 
id="container">....</div></body> 
Often I give that container a left and right margin and a border 
colour, or even a shadow effect. 
 
And if I then have some decorative images floated left and right 
within the content, I really don't see the problem if there isn't a 
<div></div> around them. I think the rule that images and inline 
content should be inside suitable blocks, wasn't invented for floating 
decorative images, but for semantics. Decorative images aren't 
semantic by definition, but because of the <img> element, they are 
caught in the rule together with text that should be in paragraphs and 
inline images. I prefer to look at the whole of an idea, instead of 
scrutinously applying rigid rules without thinking about the reasons 
for those rules. Unless there is a compatibility or accessibility 
reason for putting decorative images in divs, I don't see the point, 
and I find switching to Transitional an over the top measure to allow 
loose images. Really, what's worse in your opinion: add a possibly 
superfluous div, or change to a doctype that allows a bunch of 
deprecated code? 
 
--  
Els                     http://locusmeus.com/ 
Sonhos vem. Sonhos vão. O resto é imperfeito. 
                             - Renato Russo -
 
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