code tags

[Stomme poes]

Hey guys, am I doing something so obviously wrong that I don't see it?

I'm using code tags and it's just rendering like they're not there. I tried pre as well, no luck. The anchor is displaying as an anchor instead of anchor tags.

I can has definition list, which is inside a form for convenience:

	  <dl>
	    <dt>URL: </dt>
	      <dd>http://ourwebsite.com/</dd>
	    <dt>Site Titel: </dt>
	      <dd>Name of Site</dd>
            <dt>Site beschrijving: </dt>
	      <dd>blah blah blah teh Dennis</dd>
	    <dt>HTML code:</dt>
	      <dd><code><a href="ourwebsite.com/" title="Web Site 2.0">Web Site 2.0</a></code></dd>
	  </dl>

This is inside a fieldset and form and everything's checked out valid so far.

Is there any CSS that could possibly override code's job? I have no other code tags on the site, so, no CSS for code tags.

I haven't tested in all browsers but see it so far in FF3 and IE6 and 7. I expect the same in others.

It must be right in front of my nose???

Thanks,
-poes

*edit, justin case:
HTML
CSS (large page)

[AutisticCuckoo]

The <code> tag only marks up the content as code, semantically. It doesn't change the parsing rules of HTML. You need to escape the special characters if you want to show it as actual code.

<code>&lt;a href="ourwebsite.com/" title="Web Site 2.0"&gt;Web Site 2.0&lt;/a&gt;</code>

For real XHTML you could also use a CDATA section, but AFAIK only Opera supports that for HTML.

[Stomme poes]

And this isn't real XHTML, but we're always importing XML files and spitting out code and data from them so, I thought, what the hell...

Worked, thanks! I had thought that anything inside code or pre tags were considered CDATA and therefore wouldn't need the &whatever... my colleague, until I undid it for whatever reason, used to always have submit buttons with
value="volgende >>"
which never threw an error.

[AutisticCuckoo]

my colleague, until I undid it for whatever reason, used to always have submit buttons with
value="volgende >>"
which never threw an error.

No, but try omitting the quotation marks …

[Stomme poes]

Yeah the " were denoting CDATA I assume... that's what I thought <code> and <pre> tags could do : (

[AutisticCuckoo]

Most attribute values are of type CDATA in HTML, but the problem is that it doesn't mean the same as when an element has a content model of CDATA.

The only HTML elements with a CDATA content model are style and script. Those are (#PCDATA) in XHTML, though.

So CDATA attribute values != CDATA element content != CDATA section content.

[cooper.semantics]

Tommy, is the pre tag usually wrapped around the code tag to preserve white space?

[AutisticCuckoo]

Yes, if you're posting a larger block of code you'd normally wrap it inside a pre element:

<pre><code>
  ...
</code></pre>

[Stomme poes]

Especially if you're writing Python code. It's picky on whitespace.

[cooper.semantics]

Especially if you're writing Python code. It's picky on whitespace.

Django comes to mind

5 spaces huh? I haven't played with Django in months.

[felgall]

Is there some particular reason why you should use a <pre> tag rather than styling the <code> tag to retain the whitespace?

code {white-space:pre;}

[cooper.semantics]

Usually, when you are defining a large chunk of 'language' driven code, you do not want to manually style every line of 'code' to illusion the same whitespace that the 'pre tag' preserves.

[felgall]

Usually, when you are defining a large chunk of 'language' driven code, you do not want to manually style every line of 'code' to illusion the same whitespace that the 'pre tag' preserves.

That still doesn't explain why you need two tags around the content instead of just <code> and then add the line to your CSS to style it the same way a <pre> tag is styled.

[cooper.semantics]

IE5.x browsers do not support this property. Which probably does not bother you much. IE6 supports this with a DOCTYPE but, I do not think it supports white-space: pre; if you are using a transitional DOCTYPE.

[AutisticCuckoo]

Is there some particular reason why you should use a <pre> tag rather than styling the <code> tag to retain the whitespace?

code {white-space:pre;}

<pre> is block-level, while <code> is inline, and for a block of code a block-level element type seems more appropriate.

Also <pre> denotes preformatted text, i.e., text where white space has some sort of semantic meaning. This is definitely the case with languages like Python, FORTRAN and COBOL, but the semantics of white space may be more arguable in free format languages.

[felgall]

<pre> is block-level, while <code> in inline, and for a block of code a block-level element type seems more appropriate.

Also <pre> denotes preformatted text, i.e., text where white space has some sort of semantic meaning. This is definitely the case with languages like Python, FORTRAN and COBOL, but the semantics of white space may be more arguable in free format languages.

Thanks Tommy, I knew there had to be a good reason for doing it that way.