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New Layout: HTML Tag Handling Chart

Authors: Rick Gessner
Updated: 23 October 1998

[eds. note: This document extracted from email. Original message follows]
During a recent tag handling fest in the parser, it occured to me that we don't have a "how to handle tag x" document. So I've created a the following table of HTML tags and how we handle them in the parser. I needed this for debugging purposes, and others may benefit from it during testing.

Anyway, it's a work in progress, so send me issues.

-Rick

A
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
a
x
x
x
  
abbr
x
x
x
  
acronym
x
x
x
  
address
x
  
x
  
applet
x
x
x
x
area <map>      

B
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
Head 
Content
Other Content
b
x
x
x
      
base <head>          
basefont
x
  
x
x
    
bdo
x
x
x
      
bgsound
<head>+x
x
        
big
x
x
x
      
blink
x
x
x
      
blockquote
x
x
x
    
body
<html>, <noframe>
  
x
x
   del, ins
br
x
x
        
button
x
x
x
x
    
.
.
. ...
.
.
.
.
.

C
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
caption table  
x
  
center
x
  
x
x
cite
x
x
x
  
code x
x
x
  
col colgroup, table      
colgroup table   col  

D
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
dd dl  
*
x
del body  
x
x
dfn
x
x
x
  
dir
x
   li  
div
x
  
x
x
dl
x
   dd, dt  
dt dl  
x

E
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
em
x
x
x
  
embed
x
x
param+x
x
.
.
.
.
.

F
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
fieldset
x
  
legend+x
x
font
x
x
x
  
form
x
  
keygen+x
x
frame
frameset
      
frameset frameset, html   frame, frameset, noframes  

G
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
         
         

H
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
Head
Content
head <html>      
x
hr
x
        
html     body, frameset, head    
hx
x
  
x
    
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
Head 
Content
i
x
x
x
    
iframe
x
x
x
x
  
ilayer
x
x
x
  
img
x
x
      
ins
body
  
x
x
  
isindex
head+x
        

J
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
         
         

K
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
kbd
x
x
x
  
keygen
form
      

L
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
Head 
Content
label
x
x
x
    
layer
x
  
x
x
  
legend
fieldset
  
x
    
li  
x
x
(if inside ol/ul)
  
link
head
        
listing          

M
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
Head 
Content
map
x
x
area
    
marquee
x
  
x
x
  
menu
x
  
li
    
meta
head
        
multicol
x
  
x
x
  

 
 

N
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
Head 
Content
nextid
head
        
nobr
x
x
x
    
noembed
x
x
x
  
noframes
frametset+x
  
body+x
x
  
nolayer
x
x
x
  
noscript
x
  
x
x
  

O
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
object
x
x
param+x
x
ol
x
  
li
  
optgroup
select, optgroup
  
option, optgroup
  
option
optgroup, select
  
text
  
.
.
.
.

P
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
p
x
x
  
param
applet, object
      
plaintext        
pre
x
x*
  

*Exceptions:
applet, basefont, big, blink, font, iframe, img, nobr, object, small, sub, sup

Q
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
q
x
x
x
  

S
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
Head 
Content
s
x
x
x
    
samp
x
x
x
    
script
head+x
x
text
    
select
x
x
optgroup, option
    
small
x
x
x
    
sound
head+x
x
      
spacer
x
x
      
span
x
x
x
    
strike
x
x
x
    
strong
x
x
x
    
style
head
  
text
    
sub
x
x
x
    
sup
x
x
x
    

T
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
Head 
Content
table
x
  
caption, col,colgroup, tr, thead, tbody, tfoot
    
tbody
table
  
tr
    
td
tr
  
x
x
  
textarea
x
x
text
    
tfoot
table
  
tr
    
th
tr
  
x
x
  
thead
table
tr
    
title
head
  
text
    
tr
table, tbody, thead, tfoot
  
th, td
    
tt
x
x
x
    

U
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
u
x
x
x
  
ul
x
  
li
  

VWX!
 
Tag
Block 
Parent
Inline 
Parent
Inline 
Content
Block 
Content
var
x
x
x
  
 wbr
 x
 x
    
xmp
!doctype
html
!--