Visual model

Consider the following (X)HTML:

      <h2>News</h2>
      <ul>
         <li>South Seas Having Heavy Typhoon Season - June 12,
        1820</li>
         <li>White Whale Sighted Near Tahiti - May 9, 1820</li>
         <li>Whaler Essex Sunk by Whale - May 1, 1820</li>
         <li>Whale Oil Price Up to New Highs - February 19, 1820</li>
      </ul>
      <h2>About "Moby Dick, or, The Whale"</h2>
      <p>
        This story of a obsessive sea captain's quest to find and
        destroy an extraordinary whale that had taken his leg in
        a previous encounter is sometimes seen as an allegory for
        all of humanity's obsessive pursuits.
      </p>

The browser displays this text by creating visual blocks and placing them on the page. The outer block, or container, is the html element (IE actually has one more layer of container). The page content is arranged within that container, with blocks (often containing descendant blocks) stacked on each other. Within many blocks, such as paragraphs, is "inline" content which flows within the container, rather than stacking.

News

About "Moby Dick, or, The Whale"

This story of a obsessive sea captain's quest to find and destroy an extraordinary whale that had taken his leg in a previous encounter is sometimes seen as an allegory for all of humanity's obsessive pursuits.

More information