John Cowan:
> I recommend the use of small capital letters rather than
> italics for these key words: this can be achieved in HTML with
> <small>MUST</small>, <small>SHOULD</small>, etc.  or in HTML/CSS with
> <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">must</span>, etc.

Unfortunately, <small> in HTML just makes the font smaller; it's by no means guaranteed that it's the right size for small capital letters.  I worry that using <small> will make these REALLY important words hard to see, which is clearly not desired.  We *could* achieve that affect in CSS, but we're supposed to stick with HTML 3.2.  So I don't think <small> is a good idea here; we just don't have that fine a control over the typography.

But I understand your concern about italics.

I think we'd be better off just making them bold, using <b>...</b>, and capitalizing them too.  Then it'd be rather hard to miss these key words.

--- David A. Wheeler