Re: Information for rendering

Yves Savourel wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>To follow up on the teleconference discussion we had about 'information for
>rendering', here is a current draft of one of the Technique document of GEO that
>discusses bidirectional markup:
>http://www.w3.org/International/geo/html-tech/tech-bidi.html
>Note the section 4.
>
>See also the Unicode Technical Report 20:
>http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr20/
>See section 3.3
>(http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr20/#Bidi)
>
>That is basically the idea behind this requirement: not all rendering-related
>information can be specified in the style, 
>
I absolutely agree.

I can't admit that RTL writing is a question of style like colors or 
fonts. It is a question of writing systems not of presentation  (like 
colors, margins, tables, floating figures etc... which may be a matter 
of taste).
I think that the terms "presentation", "style", "rendering" should have 
a precise meaning.

I consulted the W3C Glossary for these teems and came out with the 
following:

"'rendering' (From XHTML 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language 
(Second Edition) (2000-01-26))
Rendering is the act whereby the information in a document is presented. 
This presentation is done in the form most appropriate to the 
environment (e.g. aurally, visually, in print)."

/// so rendering is defined using presentation/

"'[...] presentation' (From Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 
(1999-05-05))
The presentation of a document is how the document is rendered (e.g., as 
print, as a two-dimensional graphical presentation, as an text-only 
presentation, as synthesized speech, as braille, etc.) An element that 
specifies document presentation (e.g., B, FONT, CENTER) is called a 
presentation element"

// /Presentation is defined VS the structure of  a document. 
Presentation is defined using the term rendering./

"'presentation markup' (From Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 
(2000-02-03))
'Presentation markup' is markup language that encodes information about 
the desired presentation or layout of the content. For example, 
Cascading Style Sheets ([CSS1], [CSS2]) can be used to control fonts, 
colors, aural rendering, and graphical positioning. "

// /So css IS an example of presentation markup.

/

"'style sheet' (From Glossary of "Weaving the Web" (1999-07-23))
*A document that describes* to a computer program (such as a browser) 
how to translate the document markup into a* particular presentation 
(fonts, colors, spacing, etc.) *on the screen or in print. "

/// Style is HOW to translate a document into a presentation/

"'style sheets' (From Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (1999-05-05)
A style sheet is a set of statements that specify presentation of a 
document. [...] Presentation markup is markup that achieves a stylistic 
(rather than structuring) effect such as the B or I elements in HTML."

// /So Presentation markup IS for styling./


In summary:

Style is a mean that achieves presentation.
Rendering is the act by which an information is presented. (or 
pesentation is the act by which an information is rendered)
Presentation (?) is left undefined. Just illustrated by examples, that 
one can classify as:

    * Visual decoration: Bold, italic, color, font...
    * Type of support: screen, aural, print, braille.
    * text/graphic layout: two colomn text, margins, align, center, float...

Though, layout can have a role in structuring.

Regards, Najib

-- 
Najib TOUNSI (mailto:ntounsi@emi.ac.ma)
Ecole Mohammadia d'Ingenieurs, 
BP 765 Agdal-RABAT Maroc (Morocco)
Phone : +212 (0) 37 68 71 74  
Fax : +212 (0) 37 77 88 53
Mobile: +212 (0) 61 22 00 30

Received on Tuesday, 8 March 2005 18:46:05 UTC