Re: canvas <html> <body>

George Lund wrote:

> To get back to root elements - CSS can't style something that by design
> is not for presentation through a human interface.

CSS is ignorant of semantics and cannot distinguish what is meant for presentation.  
CSS takes an element tree and styles it, not stopping to examine semantics or to 
transform the tree.

> I had always taken
> it as read that, in order to accommodate a variety of different
>  document types (like SVG), the root element eventually passed to a CSS
>  renderer would in general differ from the document's XML root.

That may be the case.  We need, though, to separate element tree transformations that 
occur before passage to the CSS processor from element tree transformations that 
occur within the CSS processor.  The former may be legitimate; the latter are 
illegitimate.

>  I hadn't realised that CSS 2 seems to rule itself out of general usage
>  in this way.  But requiring an XSL transformation to arrive at a
>  particular document root isn't necessary given that CSS isn't even
>  restricted to XML...

The point is not that XSLT is the only way to transform an element tree destined for a 
CSS processor.  Rather, the point is that if an element tree is to be transformed, some 
mechanism other than CSS is required *before* passage to the CSS processor.-- 
Etan Wexler <mailto:ewexler@stickdog.com>

Received on Wednesday, 8 May 2002 04:00:33 UTC