CLASS is a way of semantically subclassing elements. Applying a style is
just one reason you would want to subclass an element. Creating CLASSes
with types of "big" or "blue" or "five_point" are just as bad as creating
elements named "<BIG>" or "<FONT>". If you absolutely must put style
information directly in your HTML document, and that style information does
not correspond to a semantic subclass, then you should use some other
attribute, such as STYLE.
I am not entirely in favour of STYLE especially a STYLE that allows direct
application of arbitrary style sheet directives, but I am certainly against
using CLASS for that.
Paul Prescod