suggestion

Hi,

I was reading about XHTML and I was disappointed to find that there is no
tree construct.  Tables are nice but they do not handle hierarchical data
very gracefully.  Data naturally arranges itself in a hierarchical way most
of the time.  Why not have a construct that handles this kind of structure?
It could be used for menus as well of course.

Imagine the following:

<tree name="My Shopping Cart" branches="open" title="ACME Cart">
  <tree name="Produce" branches="closed" title="Perishable foods">
    <tree name="Fruits" branches="closed" title="Cherry tomatos on sale">
      <tree name=banamas></tree>
      <tree name=oranges></tree>
      <tree name="cherry tomatoes"></tree>
    </tree> <!-- fruits -->
  </tree> <!-- produce -->
  <tree name="Pharmacy" branches="closed" title="Not feeling well? Try our
ginseng">
    <tree name="Pain Relievers" branches="closed" title="Take a pill and
call us in the morning">
      <tree name=Advil />
      <tree name=Tylenol />
    </tree> <!-- Pain relievers -->
  </tree> <!-- Pharmacy -->
</tree> <!-- cart -->


with a few styles it could be very cool.  I am a programmer.  I don't care
how you implement the details (remember KISS).  We need a hierarchical
control that is in the language.  Browsers like IE already this sort of
thing.  If you browse an XML document, you get a tree.  Why not allow people
to make any kind of outline they wish?

If it is an OBJECT that is ok.  As long as you give a set of standard
objects that include a menu looking thing and a tree browser looking thing
e.g. Windows Explorer or the MMC with nice pictures.

Thanks for your consideration,

Vladimir Giszpenc
mailto:vlad@logicmagic.com

Received on Friday, 24 January 2003 15:07:56 UTC