`<pre>` without `<code>`?

[John Gruber]

Jelks Cabaniss <jelks at jelks.nu> wrote on 03/13/05 at 9:28pm:

>   `
>   void main() {
>       printf("Hello world.\n");
>   }
>   `

But now you're introducing extra punctuation, for something that I
consider the most common use case.

What's wrong with just using the <pre> tags if you want a pre block
without code tags?


> The first example above is of course silly, but for non-silly examples see
> some of the RFCs that have been HTMLized -- the RFC itself is wrapped in
> `<pre>`, but not `<code>`, which is appropriate because it's *not* code.

But what's the point of turning them into HTML if they're just
going to wrap the entire document into a pre block? How is
that better than serving them as text?

-J.G.