It was this: <tt>
I say “was” because it’s deprecated. It may still “work” (like everybody’s favorite <marquee> in some browsers), but it could stop working anytime, they say. The whole purpose of it was to display text in a monospace font, like the way Teletype machines used to.
Dave used it jokingly the other day.
Per recent events: As you can see by this official transcript, Dave Rupert LLC has done nothing wrong…
<tt>
Client: This is the greatest call I've ever been on.
Dave Rupert LLC: Definitely and we didn't even do anything illegal or quid pro quo'y.
</tt>— Dave Rupert (@davatron5000) September 24, 2019
Which got me thinking how much I used to use that element!
😬😬😬 pic.twitter.com/lDZpKx9Moy
— Chris Coyier (@chriscoyier) September 24, 2019
Right here on CSS-Tricks. See, in my early days, I learned about that element and how its job is to set text as monospace. I thought, oh! like code! and then for years that’s how I marked up code on this site. I had never heard of the <code> element! When I did, I switched over to that. But I still haven’t updated every single article from <tt> to <code>. It lingers in articles like this:
I bring this up just because it’s a funny little example of not knowing what you don’t know. It’s worth having a little sympathy for people early in their journey and just doing things that get the job done because that’s all they know. We’ve all been there… and are always still there to some degree.
The MDN said it is obsolete now, so no use.
Oops! Forgot that the MDN’s Browser Compatibility table looks like that all browsers still support the
<tt>HTML element (caniuse.com didn’t track because the element is considered obsolete/deprecated to them)A professor of mine used to say, “If you’re confused, you’re beginning to get the picture.”
I’m not sure at what point I went from “knowing how to make due” to “knowing the right tool for the job,” but I DO know that there was a parallel transition from “I’m clever enough to do anything” to “My own knowledge is only the tip of the iceburg.” Sometimes when I’m faced with realizations like yours, Chris, I feel stupid for having gotten it wrong- but there’s a certain hopefulness to it too. If you were behind n years ago, imagine how much farther along you’ll be n years from now.