- From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
- Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 09:35:50 +1100 (AEDT)
- To: WAI HC Working Group <w3c-wai-hc@w3.org>
On Thu, 18 Dec 1997, Charles (Chuck) Oppermann wrote: > Up on http://microsoft.com/enable/products/ie4.htm > <http://microsoft.com/enable/products/ie4.htm> we have a couple of High > Contrast style sheets that can be downloaded. > I have visited the Microsoft site and found the style sheets, which demonstrate the problem and show that it is not merely hypothetical. Any of these style sheets would be overridden by contrary provisions in an author's style sheet. The fact that a user agent may include controls in its user interface permitting the user to disable the application of certain style sheets is helpful, but not sufficient. Rather, the user should be able to determine which of the provisions in his or her default style sheet will apply regardless of the author's style sheet, and which can be overridden. For this reason I would reiterate the importance of either (1) changing the definition of !important; so that an author's styles always carry normal weight; or (2) adding an !absolute; directive to achieve the same effect. The "specificity" problem as outlined in one of my earlier contributions to this discussion also requires attention. The fact that Microsoft have implemented "readers' style sheets" has changed my thinking somewhat with regard to the importance of this issue. The fact that it is not a major practical problem today is merely a consequence of there being so few "authors' style sheets" available on the web. This will change in the future, perhaps quite rapidly, particularly if and when CSS 2 becomes a recommendation and is widely supported by authoring tools and web browsers.
Received on Thursday, 18 December 1997 17:36:13 UTC