XML Style Sheet PI and fragment IDs

Hello XML Core WG,

This is a request from the CSS WG relating to the Style Sheet PI 
Recommendation (http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-stylesheet). We're not sure if 
it is indeed the XML Core WG that is responsable for maintaining the 
specification. If not, let us now.

The issue is what the meaning is of a style sheet link with a fragment 
identifier. I believe it was James Clark who suggested that such a link 
could be used to embed a style sheet in the document itself (in answer 
to a question about what to do if having separate files was not 
practical). However, our tests show that there is no support for 
fragment identifiers in current products, even if we restrict the 
things the link can point to.

E.g., there is a fairly straightforward interpretation for a document 
like this

    <?xml-stylesheet href="#style" type="text/css"?>
    <doc>
      <stylesheet id="style">
        doc {background: white}
      </stylesheet>
      ...
    </doc>

but we found no implementation for it. The result is that both users and 
implementers are wondering what to do.

We don't have a position as a working group on the matter, we'd like to 
hear from you first.

  - Should fragment identifiers be explicitly excluded in the
    Recommendation?

  - Should they be allowed with certain restrictions (such as those we
    used to test[1])?

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-css-wg/2004OctDec/0271.html


For the CSS WG,
Bert
-- 
  Bert Bos                                ( W 3 C ) http://www.w3.org/
  http://www.w3.org/people/bos                               W3C/ERCIM
  bert@w3.org                             2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP 93
  +33 (0)4 92 38 76 92            06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

Received on Tuesday, 18 January 2005 13:59:33 UTC