- From: Orion Adrian <orion.adrian@gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 08:24:18 -0500
- To: www-style@w3.org
On 2/15/06, Noah Scales <noahjscales@yahoo.com> wrote: > > --- Anne van Kesteren <annevk@opera.com> wrote: > > > Hi Noah, > > > >[SNIP] > > > > I rather keep data and style separate. > > You can separate data and style in one of the > following ways: > > - use separate files (for example, use an XML file > with a CSS stylesheet). > > - use separate namespaces (for example, use an XML > file with the XHTML style element and attribute). > > - use special elements and/or attributes (for example, > use an HTML file with the HTML style element and > attribute). > > - use presentation mark-up (for example, transform an > XML file to generate XSL-FO). > > Which type of "separate" do you mean, or do you mean > something else? The type of separate where you create your content without worrying about what it's going to look like. It's important to note that written text is just another way to communicate language and language similarly, meaning. While we cannot encode meaning directly, we can compose language indenpendantly of how that language is presented. This is what allows the same text to be read by search engines, people, and screen readers. If you mix everything up, it becomes much harder to read and also to maintain. As to your points about embedding CSS style attributes, CSS is best used when it's cascaded, yet another reason it would be somewhat silly to XMLize. Remember not everything needs to be in XML and not everything needs transformation services. While not a perfect, http://www.csszengarden.com/ is an example of why you don't mix style and content. -- Orion Adrian
Received on Thursday, 16 February 2006 13:24:29 UTC