CSS: for text only?

Thoughts following the comments that the CSS logo should show "text

only" character of CSS.



Shouldn't we plan, in the future, for style sheets to be a general

linking of logical elements to physical properties?  From this point of

view, text is the initial application.



For example, in object-oriented graphics, one frequently finds logical

color schemes, with logical colors for, say,



background

foreground

emphasis

de_emphasis





A style sheet could bind each of these logical categories to color, or

linewidth or line style(dash, dotted, etc).  The linewidth and line

style alternatives would be useful for black on white printing, or for

people with color impairments.



Style sheets could also be used for functional objects.  For example,

if a web page contains a menu, the style sheet could specify what

kind of menu to use: traditional rectangular, pie etc.,  via reference
to a Java Class or Active-X object, and also specify the properties of   
the

menu, e.g. how a selected menuj item appears in terms of font or color,   
or

how it sounds when accessed under control of an audio style sheet.



The short term implication of this argument is that a "graphics" look in

the CSS logo is a desirable feature. Plus a few words are needed in the

introductary paragraph of the CSS standard.  Long term, I don't think

the syntax will need to change (someone please jump in if I'm wrong),

but new elements, attributes, etc. would need to be defined.



As you may have gathered, my main interest here is the utility of this

for people with disabilities, but it would carry the benefits of style

sheet to the world of graphics and functional objects for everyone else

as well.



Len Kasday

kasday@att.com



(These are my personal opinions, not necessarily those of my employer.)

Received on Thursday, 5 December 1996 05:52:19 UTC