RE: [Styling and Layout] new use case added: Lists, Outline Lists

And one other point that you've probably all also realized (and perhaps have covered): these things often contain complex content. Pretty much anything and everything can occur in one "item" of an outline. (And as Jean said, this is more an HTML issue than a CSS issue, I think.)


--Bill K

From: Jean Kaplansky [mailto:Jean.Kaplansky@aptaracorp.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 8:34 AM
To: Ivan Herman
Cc: W3C Digital Publishing IG; Bert Bos
Subject: Re: [Styling and Layout] new use case added: Lists, Outline Lists

Ivan -

The problem is that we have to go to CSS to construct a hierarchical list in the first place. Publishers don't want that. They want a way to distinctly separate the markup for an ordinary list <ol> from an outline (which could be an entirely new element, or <ol> with some sort of type attribute indicating that it is an outline) where the numbering is automatically supplied by the UA, but is still intrinsic to the meaning of the list - a true hierarchical outline.

I don't think this use case starts with the CSS group. It should start with the HTML group where the markup can be modeled effectively. UA's can then use browser default CSS to support the markup.

However the HTML group decides to go, there should be markup treated by the UA such that individual list items are always marked with a concatenation of their own marker + all ancestors' markers in the UA with no extra CSS necessary on the part of the author.

I can go work on the wording of the use case to clarify this.

Please let me know any further questions/comments.

Thanks,
Jean

From: Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org<mailto:ivan@w3.org>>
Date: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 at 3:26 AM
To: Jean Kaplansky <jean.kaplansky@aptaracorp.com<mailto:jean.kaplansky@aptaracorp.com>>
Cc: DPUB <public-digipub-ig@w3.org<mailto:public-digipub-ig@w3.org>>, Bert Bos <bert@w3.org<mailto:bert@w3.org>>
Subject: Re: [Styling and Layout] new use case added: Lists, Outline Lists

Jean,

I would need a clarification.

When using CSS, there is a fairly well working 'idiom' to build hierarchical numbering of list elements. A nice example I found is:

http://jsfiddle.net/qGCUk/4/

But I presume you guys know that:-)

Do I understand it well that what the requirement is is to be able to define that declaratively, without the necessity to build the CSS structure as above? First of all, I believe the use case should emphasize this, because the current text suggests that this is not possible with CSS (which is not true). Also... I think we will have a hard time convincing the CSS folks about the validity of that specific requirement when a mechanism already exists and is well established (I cc Bert explicitly to draw his attention:-), ie, we would need some stronger arguments.

Ivan


On 17 Dec 2013, at 01:37 , Jean Kaplansky <Jean.Kaplansky@aptaracorp.com<mailto:Jean.Kaplansky@aptaracorp.com>> wrote:

http://www.w3.org/dpub/IG/wiki/UseCase_Directory#Lists
Goes to
http://www.w3.org/dpub/IG/wiki/Lists
Where I have added a use case for Outline Lists that Tzviya and I discussed last week. It occurred to us that only the most rudimentary outline lists are currently supported in HTML5 with UA defaults and CSS. We can certainly use CSS to imply more specific outlining scenarios, but publishers, especially STM and legal publishers, often distinguish between regular ordered lists and highly specific outlines. For example, many hierarchical outline concatenate list item numbers based on point in hierarchy, so you could have  list with items 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, or 1.a, 1.b, 1.c. Right now, there's no OOTB way to do this in HTML5 without building custom CSS to imply the hierarchy.
Please let Tzviya or I know any questions about this use case.
Thanks,
Jean Kaplansky
Digital Content Solutions Architect, Aptara
Invited Expert Member  l  W3C Digital Publishing Interest Group
Task Force Lead  l  W3C Digital Publishing MathML/STM Interest Group
Member  l  IDPF Indexing and Open Annotations EDUPUB Working Groups,
BISG Content Structure Committee, STC, and SSP
jean.kaplansky@aptaracorp.com<mailto:jean.kaplansky@aptaracorp.com>
+1.518.487.9670
Skype: JeanKaplansky
Twitter: @JeanKaplansky
<04503480-0856-4E40-B984-E9E64C468C2E[105].png>


----
Ivan Herman, W3C
Digital Publishing Activity Lead
Home: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/
mobile: +31-641044153
GPG: 0x343F1A3D
FOAF: http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf