- From: Jon Bosak <bosak@atlantic-83.Eng.Sun.COM>
- Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 20:06:00 -0800
- To: www-style@w3.org
- CC: bosak@atlantic-83.Eng.Sun.COM
[Håkon Lie:] | Jon Bosak writes: | | > In previous messages I have pointed to versions of a DSSSL stylesheet | > for HTML 3.2. The HTML 3.2 stylesheet shows how DSSSL can be used to | > program formatting features such as automatic table-of-contents | > generation that cannot be achieved in a purely declarative style | > language. | | Automatic table-of-content generation can surely be supported by | declarative style sheets. Doesn't Panorama support TOCs this way [1] ? | | [1] http://www.softquad.com/products/panorama/ppfeatur.htm Good catch. I was trying to be brief and ended up with an oversimplification. Panorama navigators provide very nice tables of contents; I was actually thinking more of CSS. :-) However, (a) the Panorama stylesheet language is not purely declarative, since it contains some essential implied decision structures, and more importantly (b) the TOC functionality, while flexible enough for most purposes, is not truly programmable. A DSSSL TOC is a completely programmed function whose behavior is open to the designer of the stylesheet. I believe that this level of programmability could be achieved in Panorama only by using the associated toolkit to recompile the application. What I should have said was that arbitrarily programmable TOCs cannot be achieved in a purely declarative stylesheet language, which verges on being true by definition. Jon
Received on Friday, 13 December 1996 23:08:07 UTC