HTML writer: initial EOL after <pre>

There is a major docutils component to this question, but I also
ask for CSS help.

Default browser styling of a PRE element is something like this::

   display: block;
   font-family: monospace;
   white-space: pre;

The white-space appears to be interpreted by many browsers as
including any EOL immediately following the tag. ::

   <pre>
   So this appears to be preceded by an empty line.
   </pre>

That seems to be typical handling, although not in Edge.
If I am right, it conflicts with the spec:
https://www.w3.org/TR/html4/appendix/notes.html#notes-line-breaks
Finding a browser error admittedly seems unlikely ...
But if I am wrong, it should be possible to style it away.

1. Is this a browser bug?

2. If not, this behavior can be styled away.  How?
And should this "fixed" styling be done by the writer.

3. If styling is not a solution, should PRE elements be written
with content following immediately (rather than with
an initial EOL)?

Cheers,
Alan



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