Re: Controling structure with CSS

Tantek Çelik wrote:
>  >> a quick question: would it make sense to allow authors to rearrange the
>>>  structure of a document wit CSS?
>>
>>  No.  That would mean it was trying to do everything.
>
>Depending on how you interpret it, your statement is equivalent to saying it
>is wrong to do everything with XML or with UNICODE for that matter.

Personally, I see no such equivalency.  The 
referent to "it" is very clearly "CSS", which 
says nothing at all about XML, UNICODE, or 
anything else.

>  > XLST is intended
>>  for this sort of situation.
>
>This statement has two fundamental philosophical flaws.
>
>1. The "one-tech" blinders.  Just because there is one technology to do
>something doesn't mean there shouldn't be another.
>
>2. The fact that complex solutions beg for simpler solutions.

Let's assume you are correct in both.  Does this 
mean that it is your belief that CSS *should* 
allow authors to re-arrange document structure? 
If so, that would be a rather major philosophical 
shift for the Cascading Style Sheet language, 
wouldn't it?  To quote from the currently-active 
recommendation:

"CSS2 is a style sheet language that allows 
authors and users to attach style (e.g., fonts, 
spacing, and aural cues) to structured documents 
(e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). By 
separating the presentation style of documents 
from the content of documents, CSS2 simplifies 
Web authoring and site maintenance."

And as Bert says in his Design Guide:

"The most commonly heard guideline on the Web is 
to separate structure and style. It is what led 
to the separation of HTML and CSS into two 
individual specifications. And a good advice it 
was, too."

Are you really suggesting that this advice was 
actually bad, and that a fundamental separation 
of style and structure in fact does *not* 
simplify authoring and maintenance?  That would 
be surprising, but appears to be your implication.

-Adam Kuehn

Received on Friday, 16 April 2004 20:40:07 UTC