Why is a newline converted into a ' ' in any given .html file?

Question

I have a question related to HTML. In order to demonstrate my simple question, I will use a minimal example.

Consider the following HTML content:

Answer 1

In HTML a carriage return or line feed in the source code is treated as white space and rendered as a space. Multiple spaces or white space (CR, LF, tabs, etc.) amount to a single white space on the rendered page.

So if you have 50 carriage returns in your source code between Foo and : Bar it will render a one space (Foo : Bar) when th HTML page is displayed in the browser.

From the HTML 4.01 spec: Controlling line breaks.