The Whatever Element

Note: This idea was born from one of a previous manager of mine who coined the phrase “There is no whatever tag” in response to design outlines that would frequently not provide enough detail or match our HTML design specifications. I wrote this up as an ode to his pain and frustration.

Dear HTML Working Group,

The various (X)HTML specifications that you have so diligently worked upon have provided many of us web-designers with an exhaustive set of tools for website creation. For this, we are thankful.

While these specifications seem adequate in many cases, it has come to the attention of many of us that an amendment to the latest specification is needed. Through our many grindingly painful experiences in discussing page layout with clients, managers, designers and decision-makers, it has become obvious that that a new element is needed which may save our souls from more disturbing experiences that may lie ahead.

We propose the following:

Introducing the <whatever> element

Short description : Useful in defining a content area with little to no specific detail of its layout, content, style or function, especially in relation to nearby elements. In fact, this element is intended to be used with complete ignorance of any surrounding elements.

The <whatever> element would have a location in the DOM that could be considered a pseudo-existance.

One unique aspect of the <whatever> element is the ability to interpret just about any custom property values and still understand what was meant.

Style Properties:

appearance : pretty, impressive, intense, [insert your own adjective]
surrounding-stuff : plenty-of-space, tight-fit, make-it-look-good
line-breaks : none, maybe, where-it-makes-sense, not-sure
font-size : the-correct-one

Example:

<whatever>

Position Function Salary

Executive Director General Management $48,754  

Deputy Director General Management $30,664 

Administrative Assistant to Executive Director General Management $21,566  

Administrative Secretary / Personnel Officer Clerical support to the Executive Director and Administrative Assistant responsible for personnel information $17,087  

Finance Officer Accounting and related activities $26,484 

Bookkeeper  Accounting $20,797 

Bookkeeper Accounting $17,215  

Bookkeeper / Payroll Clerk Payroll accounting and general disbursements $16,560  

Custodian Cleaning $2,936  

Receptionist Switchboard / Clerical $14,232 

Total Administrative Services Pool Salaries: $216,295

</whatever>

This gets rendered in the browser as

As you can imagine, the <whatever> element gaurantees that the output will match exactly what the designer had in mind, even if their mind changes.

This element could do away with stylesheets entirely.

Please consider our request as this would have an evolutionary affect on the course of of frontend development and design forever (though it would undoubtedly have a negative affect on headache medicine sales).

Thank you.