Section 7.7. Directory Lists

7.7. Directory Lists

The directory list is a specialized form of unordered list. It has been deprecated in the HTML 4 and XHTML standards. We don't recommend that you use it at all. [<ul>, 7.1.1]

7.7.1. The <dir> Tag (Deprecated)

The designers of HTML originally dedicated the <dir> tag for displaying lists of files. As such, the browser, if it treats <dir> and <ul> differently at all (most don't), expects the various list elements to be quite short, possibly no longer than 20 or so characters . Some browsers display the elements in a multicolumn format and may not use a leading bullet.

<dir>

Function	Defines a directory list
Attributes	class, dir, id, lang, onClick, onDblClick, onKeyDown, onKeyPress, onKeyUp, onMouseDown, onMouseMove, onMouseOut, onMouseOver, onMouseUp, style, title
End tag	</dir> ; never omitted
Contains	list_content
Used in	block

As with an unordered list, you define directory list items with the <li> tag. When used within a directory list, however, the <li> tag may not contain any block element, including paragraphs, other lists, preformatted text, or forms.

The following example puts the directory tag to its traditional task of presenting a list of filenames:

 The distribution tape has the following files on it: <dir>   <li><code>README</code></li>   <li><code>Makefile</code></li>   <li><code>main.c</code></li>   <li><code>config.h</code></li>   <li><code>util.c</code></li> </dir> 

Notice that we used the <code> tag to ensure that the filenames would be rendered in an appropriate manner (see Figure 7-9).

Figure 7-9. An example <dir> list

7.7.1.1. The <dir> attributes

The attributes for the <dir> tag are identical to those for <ul> , with the same effects.