Re: When will CSS rule?

Hi

At 17:03 18/11/96 -0600, you wrote:

>I'm doing some research on CSS and am interested to find out more about
>people's opinions on if and how soon CSS will become standard on the
>web.  So a few questions:

Well, here are some opinions -- I would be equally interested in any hard
data on answer to these questions, but I suspect that it may be pretty hard
to come by!

>3.  Do you think that when CSS are a standard most web sites will adopt
>them, or just web sites that are art/style oriented?  
>
>4.  If most sites do adopt them, will it be immediate, or will it take a
>year or more for CSS to really become standard?

My suspicion is that the wholesale adoption of style-sheets hinges on how
easy they are to use.  Take Frames for instance.  When Frames first came
out, they were pretty rare -- HTML writers for the web then didn't
understand Frames and didn't have the time to learn how they worked (I don't
mean to start a thread about the validity or otherwise of Frames, here, BTW!
;) ).  Then, some HTML editing packages produced Frame Editors -- now it was
easy to make Frames, so lots of people did them.

In the case of Java (which you mention in your final paragraph), well, I
guess Java was pretty hyped by SUN before it came out as the big new thing
on the web.  But it's interesting to note that up until really very
recently, _most_  java applets on the Web have been 'jumping-beans' style
animations.  Same learning problem -- but tools like Aimtech's
recently-released Jamba may well change that, slowly.

With CSS, I think that people are now beginning to talk more about it : I
see a fair number of posts on Webthings lists which start off with
statements like 'When we finally get Style Sheets, you'll be able to do
this.  For now...'  I can't really comment on the position of companies like
Netscape, but...

>5.  Do you think the average surfer is going to take the time to learn
>enough about CSS to override an author's sheet?  

I think this is also a usability issue.  _If_ the UA can offer an
easy-to-use customising interface to allow people to design their own
style-sheets and _if_ it's possible to communicate the strengths and uses of
style-sheets, then yes.  On the other hand -- I would suggest that a lot of
people like to see what a given website designer has done in terms of
_design_, rather than just looking for information.  Style Sheets will
potentially give designers a great deal more control over design and layout
than is currently possible without compromising the core values of HTML.  So
I wonder how many surfers will want to override?

>Any opinions, facts, reactions would be greatly appreciated.

As I said at the top, these are merely opinions! ;)

Cheers

--&e

Received on Tuesday, 19 November 1996 05:45:56 UTC