Re: [Docutils-users] HTML writer: initial EOL after <pre>

[Guenter M. <mi...@us...>]

On 2016-08-11, Alan Isaac wrote:
> There is a major docutils component to this question, but I also
> ask for CSS help.

> Default browser styling of a PRE element is something like this::

>    display: block;
>    font-family: monospace;
>    white-space: pre;

> The white-space appears to be interpreted by many browsers as
> including any EOL immediately following the tag. ::

>    <pre>
>    So this appears to be preceded by an empty line.
>    </pre>

> That seems to be typical handling, although not in Edge.

> If I am right, it conflicts with the spec:
> https://www.w3.org/TR/html4/appendix/notes.html#notes-line-breaks
> Finding a browser error admittedly seems unlikely ...

This is the "normal" rule. It conflicts with the definition of
``white-space:pre``: "don't ignore whitespace".

Also, the definition for XHTML may differ.

> But if I am wrong, it should be possible to style it away.

> 1. Is this a browser bug?

Unsure, see above.

> 2. If not, this behavior can be styled away.  How?
> And should this "fixed" styling be done by the writer.

Not that I know of. Maybe with some exoticly complicated rule...

> 3. If styling is not a solution, should PRE elements be written
> with content following immediately (rather than with
> an initial EOL)?

I think so. This is what the "html5" writer does.

Günter