RE: Microsoft has now joined the HTML Working Group

Matthew Raymond [mailto:mattraymond@earthlink.net] wrote:
>   Interesting, but why wouldn't the underlying plug-in architecture
>handle the rendering of plug-ins in different rendering contexts, such
>as printing? Why have an event specifically for a single media if this
>issue might exist for other medias? Can you give a use case where a
>plug-in needs to be informed of printing via a scripted event in HTML?

Possibly.  You raise an interesting point, but perhaps the reason is because we don't ever "switch media" to anything else (though of course a UA could do that - for example, when you switch to "projection") - but I'd point out that print is kinda special, at least the way we implement it today - because print is non-interactive, and must capture a single instant in time.  I'd have to do a deeper thought exercise to think of a particular case for you.

>   With the potential for abuse (crazy DRM schemes and malicious
>alteration of the document to prevent printing of content), bugs (the
>page doesn't have the correct print presentation or the changes to the
>document aren't undone after printing) and circumvention (turning of
>Javascript temporarily or using a script to remove the attributes), why
>isn't having a separate printable version of a document not a better
>method of addressing this issue? Couldn't you use link to point a <link>
>to an alternative print version of the document and have the user agent
>prompt to use this version when the user hits the browser print button?

Maintenance.  No one wants to maintain separate print versions of their pages.  If they do, they typically have a PDF version today anyway.

>   Also, as an alternative, why can't a "print" button in the HTML
>trigger a script that copies the document object, alters the copy,
>prints it then disposes of it without ever touching the original
>document? (I've heard that there may be memory issues with this, but
>there's no obvious reason to restrict this for smaller documents.)

Because "print" as a verb is integrated into the UA.  I hate having to hunt around to find a "print" button on the page - as a user, I like being able to hit control-P, or hit the print button.

-Chris

Received on Monday, 9 April 2007 01:21:28 UTC