Re: Action item: "default"

Excuse me for being still very confused what is intended by 4.4 ... but I 
had thought it was referring to technologies that support multimedia and 
special effects, svg, etc. Now, I see, the target is the style sheets.

But the problem of styles sheets arises because of
1.5 Separate content and structure from presentation.

where designers are told to use styles sheets, then in 4.4 if they have 
decided to follow 1.5, they then have to turn around and make the site 
useful for those who don't use style sheets. Would it be easier to write if 
this were moved from a standing checkpoint to being a how-to in 1.5? The 
two seem related, and it seems likely to me that other readers of the 
document may overlook the connection of 1.5 and 4.4.

  Does 4.4 mean that if you design the markup of a page in CSS you must 
also duplicate it in HTML, providing markup for both html and for css? If 
so, shouldn't it be a technique on how to accomplish 1.5 properly?

If we continue with both checkpoints, perhaps we should have cross links 
between the two so the audience can connect between them.


At 06:55 PM 8/17/01 -0700, cyns@opendesign.com wrote:
>I took an action item at yesterday's call to modify the reviewer's not on
>guideline 4.4 to include a definition of "default presentation" as it is
>used in the guideline.
>
>Here's a shot at it.  It needs some work:
>
><checkpoint>
>Checkpoint 4.4 Ensure that content remains usable when technologies that
>modify default user agent processing or behavior are turned off or not
>supported.
></checkpoint>
><note>
>Note to reviewers:
>The term "default user agent processing or behavior" is intended to mean
>what the user agent does with the markup in the absence of stylesheets (and
>similar instruments).  It is only intended to cover markup languages which
>expect to be rendered without the aid of stylesheets.
>HTML is an example of such a markup language - the browser is expected to
>know how to format the HTML without the aid of CSS stylesheets.  The
>guideline would require that HTML pages be usable with CSS disabled.  XML is
>an example of a markup language for which there is no default rendering - in
>the absence of a stylesheet a user agent may simply display the markup
>itself. The guideline would not require that XML be usable without XSL/T and
>CSS.
>"Default processing or behavior" is NOT intended to mean the default
>settings of the user agent (which in most modern user agents would have
>style support enabled).
>There is ongoing discussion in the working group about how to best express
>this concept in a way that is not specific to HTML. Input from reviewers
>would be greatly appreciated.
></note>

Anne Pemberton
apembert@erols.com

http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.geocities.com/apembert45