Re: Reframing my question

--- Bert Bos <bert@w3.org> wrote:
> bekah writes:
> > Dear w3 style list:
> > 
> > I asked a question (below) about navigation and CSS recently. I was 
> > going to post some examples to this list.
> > But as I study the problem more, I find new questions arise.
> > 
> > The accessibility universe is in a state of expansion. New user agents 
> > are being developed. Decisions I make now
> > on web design may be obsolete in a few years.
> > 
> > I have succeeded in separating structure from presentation. I am using 
> > CSS to control the look of my HTML page, but not
> > consistently from browser to browser.
> > 
> > Am I wasting my time orchestrating my style sheets to work with each 
> > browser especially since my content is not due to be published for at 
> > least 6 years?
> > 
> > By that time, will a portable document standard be available for 
> > universal accessibility?
> 
> If we could only predict what the Web looks like in 6 years... :-)
> 
> W3C works on the assumption that a certain number of concept have
> proved to be generally useful in the past, and will probably continue
> to be useful, including:
> 
>     modularity: each system concentrates on one function, HTML for the
>     structure, CSS for the style, etc. so that each can be good at
>     what it does, but can also be replaced by something better without
>     breaking the others.
> 
>     simplicity: keep each system simple enough that, in the case it
>     becomes obsolete, you can give the documentation to a student and
>     he'll give you a good-enough implementation next week. HTML
>     (*valid* HTML, I mean) is simple enough, that even if is not the
>     perfect format for your kind of data, it is no sweat to write a
>     parser for it it to transform it, if in 6 years time you have
>     decided what to transform it to.
> 
>     text, not binary: if all else fails, you can extract the
>     information by hand, using a good text editor
> 
>     public standards, rather than proprietary formats: the company may
>     go broke and all documentation may disappear with it, which is not
>     as likely for standards that are freely available.
> 
>     go one level higher: you want the text to be in italics, but ask
>     yourself why and then don't encode the italics, but the answer to
>     that question. In CSS terms, that means avoid "<i>word</i>" and
>     use 'span.warning {font-style: italics}' instead. This idea is
>     also known as the "semantic Web"
> 
>     extensibility: HTML's CLASS attribute and CSS's parsing rules are
>     just two examples of features that are there, because we know that
>     the formats are not perfect and yet cannot be replaced at short
>     notice.
> 
>     etc. (see e.g., my essay[1])
> 
> I've been working in the field for much longer than 6 years, and my
> experience is that these things work. Not everybody knows about them,
> unfortunately, or believes in them, and not all new developments are
> progress, but I do often get the satisfaction that something I
> designed or supported 6 years ago is finally starting to work...
> 
> [1] http://www.w3.org/People/Bos/DesignGuide/introduction
> 
> 
> 
> Bert
> -- 
>   Bert Bos                                ( W 3 C ) http://www.w3.org/
>   http://www.w3.org/people/bos/                              W3C/INRIA
>   bert@w3.org                             2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP 93
>   +33 (0)4 92 38 76 92            06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

It is starting to work, but not yet working!
My browser, NS 4.7 is having a "BIG" difficulty displaying the INTRODUCTION title :)

I hope it works in a year or two!

Cheers until then!

Vix!
 


=====
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Received on Friday, 25 January 2002 22:01:56 UTC