Re: Comments on UA Guidelines Last Call Working Draft

Liam Quinn wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I reviewed the UA Guidelines Working Draft of November 5.  I've been out
> of touch with the WAI-UA efforts lately, but I'd like to congratulate
> all who contributed to the Draft.  I'm very impressed at how the
> Guidelines have come together and improved from the early Working
> Drafts.

Thank you, Liam.
 
> I have only a few points to make from reading the Guidelines:
> 
> 1. Checkpoint 4.17 suggests that users should be able to turn off all
> style sheets.  Without a style sheet, there is no way to present HTML or
> XML documents in some modern browsers.  

HTML documents will still work without style sheets (in fact the WCAG
requires that they do).

> The user should not be able to
> turn off the base UA style sheet (but of course should be able to
> override UA styles through user style sheets).

I think you are correct. From the CSS2 specification [1]:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
 Conforming user agents must apply a default style sheet 
 (or behave as if they did) prior to all other style 
 sheets for a document. A user agent's default style
 sheet should present the elements of the document language 
 in ways that satisfy general presentation expectations 
 for the document language (e.g., for visual browsers, the
 EM element in HTML is presented using an italic font).
 </BLOCKQUOTE>

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/cascade.html

However, what is the UA default style sheet for an XML document?
 
> 2. Regarding checkpoints 10.1 and 10.2, I think that these are worth
> keeping separate with the priorities given.

Ok.

Thank you again Liam,

 - Ian


-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel/Fax:                     +1 212 684-1814
Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Received on Wednesday, 1 December 1999 08:36:47 UTC