Deliberate breaking of indent inheritance

Dear Editors,

a few months ago I documented my interpretation of the XSL-FO 1.0
specification in terms of start-indent and end-indent inheritance on a
Wiki page [1]. This is also the way I've implemented the functionality
in Apache FOP (see 0.90 alpha1, not 0.20.5). I've come to realize that
Apache FOP is currently the only implementation known to me that doesn't
deliberately break the property inheritance rules for start-indent and
end-indent properties over reference-area boundaries.

The XSL WG's disposition on comment 20, item 4 in [2] clearly states
that there's merit to stick to the rules. Obviously, I personally agree
with this decision but the situation produces unexpected results for
inexperienced FO users. That's certainly the main point why many
commercial implementors have chosen to break the inheritance rules in
this case although this creates an interoperability issue.

Since today XSL-FO is possibly worse concerning interoperability than
HTML I'd like to ask the XSL WG to reevaluate this topic and to restate
their updated opinion in this matter. I don't mind if the WG changes
their opinion.

Furthermore, in my opinion, it is necessary to find a way to improve
interoperability between implementations as a whole. It has become a
major nuisance. If all implementors sticked their heads together to
create an official test suite, it could help improve the situation a lot
and it would certainly help clarifying problem spots in the
specification as well as put a certain pressure on implementors to
improve interoperability. I'd be willing to invest some effort in this.
Are there other parties that would be willing to help?

[1] http://wiki.apache.org/xmlgraphics-fop/IndentInheritance
[2] http://www.w3.org/2001/08/28-XSL-PR-DOC.html

Thank you!

Best regards,
Jeremias Maerki

Received on Wednesday, 30 November 2005 12:51:12 UTC