Item5295: Use inline CSS instead of font tag to avoid malformed HTML for common user input

At the moment TWiki implements colour directives like %RED% with the <font> tag. But because HTML restricts the places font can appear, this can lead to malformed HTML being produced. For example the user might enter

<pre class="code">

Hello %RED% there %ENDCOLOR%.

</pre>

With TWiki 4.2.0, this generates a <font> inside the <pre> element, which is not permitted by the HTML DTD. The output is therefore malformed HTML. But if instead TWiki used <span style="font: #ff0000">, it would be legal HTML.

Since the <font> element is deprecated anyway it would be a good idea to move away from it towards <span style="..."> or <div style="...">.

I think this is a bug, not an enhancement, because of the malformed HTML currently being produced.

-- TWiki:Main/EdAvis - 28 Jan 2008

Currently the colours are defined in the TWikiPreferences topic. What negative and non compatible result could come out of changing to <span tags with CSS ?

-- TWiki:Main.KennethLavrsen - 28 Jan 2008

We've left the time of Netscape 4 support behind us, I think. But then even Netscape supported span color tags.

-- TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens - 28 Jan 2008

Yes, it should be safe to use: http://www.richinstyle.com/bugs/netscape4.html

-- TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens - 29 Jan 2008