Use of trailing semicolons in stylesheets

[Rowan Malin]

Hi folks,

What's the general concensus on including the final semicolon in a group of
style declarations? I know that, as a separator rather than a terminator,
it's redundant and, as a veteran Pascal programmer, tend not to use them
myself. However, I see recommendations that they should be used, for reasons
such as "it's easier to cut and paste" and "some user-agents expect it".

Any comments?

Cheers,
Rowan

[Michael Wilcox]

Rowan Malin <ro**********@hotmail.com> wrote:

What's the general concensus on including the final semicolon in a
group of style declarations?

Obviously I alone can't tell you the general consensus, but it's my opinion
that to use this last semicolon is good practice because (1) I can add on to
the code without making sure to put in that extra character and (2) for my
personal sanity having each line end with a semicolon looks nicer. I've
noticed in almost every site that offers css code the final semicolon is
used.
--
Michael Wilcox
mjwilco at yahoo dot com
Essential Tools for the Web Developer - http://mikewilcox.t35.com

[Neal]

"Rowan Malin" <ro**********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bt************@ID-177236.news.uni-berlin.de...

Hi folks,

What's the general concensus on including the final semicolon in a group of style declarations? I know that, as a separator rather than a terminator,
it's redundant and, as a veteran Pascal programmer, tend not to use them
myself. However, I see recommendations that they should be used, for reasons such as "it's easier to cut and paste" and "some user-agents expect it".

Any comments?

Cheers,
Rowan

I've never heard of a UA expecting it. I do it simply because sure as rain,
when I add another property to the selector, I'll forget to add the
semicolon and I'll tear my hear out for a few minutes at least wondering
what the hell I did.

So I do it for cosmetic reasons. ;)

[Stephen Poley]

On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 05:13:07 GMT, "Michael Wilcox"
<mj*****************@yahoo.com> wrote:

Rowan Malin <ro**********@hotmail.com> wrote:

What's the general concensus on including the final semicolon in a
group of style declarations?

Obviously I alone can't tell you the general consensus, but it's my opinion
that to use this last semicolon is good practice because (1) I can add on to
the code without making sure to put in that extra character and (2) for my
personal sanity having each line end with a semicolon looks nicer.

<AOL mode>

Me too.

</AOL mode>

To answer the OP's other point: I've not heard of a browser which has
problems with either the presence or absence of the trailing semicolon.
(Nearest I can think of is one or two which hiccup if the white-space
isn't to their liking.)

--
Stephen Poley

http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/

[Christopher P. Winter]

On Sat, 3 Jan 2004 01:19:59 -0500, "Neal" <ne**@spamrcn.com> wrote:

"Rowan Malin" <ro**********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bt************@ID-177236.news.uni-berlin.de...

Hi folks,

What's the general concensus on including the final semicolon in a group

of

style declarations? I know that, as a separator rather than a terminator,
it's redundant and, as a veteran Pascal programmer, tend not to use them
myself. However, I see recommendations that they should be used, for

reasons

such as "it's easier to cut and paste" and "some user-agents expect it".

Any comments?

Cheers,
Rowan

I've never heard of a UA expecting it. I do it simply because sure as rain,
when I add another property to the selector, I'll forget to add the
semicolon and I'll tear my hear out for a few minutes at least wondering
what the hell I did.

So I do it for cosmetic reasons. ;)

Someone else who does it religiously (i.e. without fail) is Eric Meyer.
Since he consults on CSS and has written three books on the subject, I think
it's fair to say he's a CSS expert.

Like the OP, I've done a lot of Pascal programming and I tend to omit
that final semicolon. But now, every time I do, a little voice in the back of
my head asks, "What would Eric type?" <g>