Template:PBR

WTF?

Template:PBR is intended to give the outward appearance and effect of the BR tag with the exception that multiple uses of it will not cause multiple lines of whitespace. You use it everywhere you want a linebreak but don't want to have extra whitespace associated with linebreaks piling up. Essentially PBR is a conditional BR, if a BR is needed it works as a BR, if it's not needed it has no effect. It's the bees knees.

How it works

The original version used an empty "div" tag but it had the side effect that you would have to fight the wiki engine to keep it from inserting "p" tags. The solution is to *not* fight the wiki engine and use a tag that it will let you include in "p" tags. The new version uses an empty "span" tag, which is "p" friendly but with inline style we convert the tag to "block" from "inline".

Problems

Because of the unorthodox (ab)use of this mix of CSS, HTML and MediaWiki we end up with a situation where strange things happen that few web browser authors have given much thought to. Specifically when copying the text the result is different depending upon which web browser you use. The only browser to support this flawlessly at present are those based on Webkit (Google Chrome, Safari). Both IE 8.0 and Firefox 3.0 are buggy.

Name

Q: Why PBR?
A: Pseudo-BReak

Breaking Lines

BR Tag test test test test test test test test test	SPAN D:B test test test test test testtest test test	SPAN + BR test test test test test test test test test	PBR Template test test test test test test test test test	Goal test test test test test test test test test
DIV test test test test test test test test test	CENTER test test test test test testtest test test	BR D:T test test test test test test test test test	BR D:B test test test test test test test test test	Goal test test test test test test test test test

Links of Interest

http://www.quirksmode.org/css/display.html