First of all, I'm not a native English speaker, so please prepare my bad English.
In HTML, since I realize that style="white-space:pre;" attribute makes the element like as <pre> tag, I tend to use that attribute (optionally also use "font-family:monospace;" when I need), not <pre>. To me, <pre> feels very less semantic. Using stronger semantic tags with proper styling looks more logical.
Currently, my rule is like this:
preformatted plain text, bunch of characters -> use <pre>.
preformatted paragraph-like things -> use <p style="white-space:pre;"> (optionally add "font-family:monospace;").
Following that rule, I've been using <pre> tag only for ASCII art because I don't think ASCII art is a paragraph-like stuff. However, I think stanza ≒ paragraph, so I use <p style="white-space:pre;"> when I express verse things(poem, poetry, lyrics) in HTML.
My problem is.. I cannot decide what should I use for code. In other words, I'm confused whether the bunch of code is paragraph or not. In addition, both <pre> and <p> with styling looks having a point and logical.
Anyway.. Wikipedia says:
A paragraph is a self-contained unit of a discourse in writing dealing with a particular point or idea.
Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary says:
[NOUN] A paragraph is a section of a piece of writing.
I think those can be partially valid for code. Especially, these example is more confusing:
Let's a + b, and divide it by 2.
result = a + b result = result / 2
The only difference between them is one is natural language and the other is code. The natural language one is obviously normal paragraph, and that fact makes me feel the code also paragraph partially because they even has same discourse. The talk about 'code is documentation' or 'self-documentation code' also makes using <p> feel more right.
However, I do feel <pre> also logical. Especially when it is more like less human readable, more machine-like, raw and primal, like pure machine code (01010101100..) or morse code. I would tag them with <pre>, and though I cannot say why exactly, it looks more right. However, using <pre> for some code and using <p> for high level code feels inconsistent.
I don't think it's just simple preference problem, like both are fine, just pick any of them and be consistent', and the logical answer exists, which I need.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.