- From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
- Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 11:27:35 +1000 (AEST)
- To: Al Gilman <asgilman@access.digex.net>
Here are a few comments on your draft response to the ACSS action item. Firstly, I would suggest that you offer a list of specific recommendations which the W3C might consider when revising its HTML Cougar proposal. Based on your draft document, the most important of these recommendations would appear to be that the user should be given the option of substituting his/her own style sheets for those provided by the author of the document, and this should include the ability to disallow the application of persistent styles. As I read it, the current draft of the HTML styles specification is ambiguous as to whether the user should be able to override persistent style sheets, and if so, under what circumstances. This point should be clarified. In the Cougar draft, under the discussion of alternate styles, it is stated that the user should be permitted to choose between alternate styles or to "switch off style sheets" altogether. Later, however, a "persistent style" is defined as one which is always applied, regardless of the user's preference. The document should at least allow for persistent styles to be ignored whenever they are not specifically intended for the medium in which the document will be formatted. For example, audio-based user agents should be able to disregard persistent style sheets which are not of media type "audio". For maximum flexibility, it would be preferable that users be able to deactivate persistent styles in all cases and substitute their own preferences for those of the author. (I offer this as a suggestion for further discussion). Secondly, you could address the question of whether it is possible for there to be a style sheet that can apply to all media. In the Cougar draft, it is proposed that in the absence of an explicit "media" attribute, a media type of "all" should be implied by default. Stated differently, the style sheet is presumed to be relevant to all media types unless otherwise specified. Consideration could be given to the question of whether this arrangement is satisfactory, and if not, what alternative proposals might be offered. For example, should the specification of a media type be made obligatory? Presumably this would interfere with backward compatibility and thus be unacceptable, but the general suggestion is that a range of options be considered and discussed. It appears from the present proposal that, in the absence of a "media" attribute, an audio-based user agent, for example, would need to retrieve the style sheet and determine whether any of its contents were relevant to the audio medium. If the style sheet in question were written with print in mind, it is highly unlikely that it would be relevant to the audio medium and would need to be discarded; but assuming that audio and print-oriented parameters (as set out, respectively in the CSS and ACSS specifications) can be given in a single style sheet, there would be no alternative, in the absence of a media attribute, but to parse the style sheet to determine whether any audio parameters were contained therein. This issue is directly related to the question, noted earlier, of whether there can be styles that are applicable across all media types. Please feel free to post this message to the WAI list or to forward it to other interested parties if you consider such action appropriate. Regards, Jason White.
Received on Thursday, 26 June 1997 21:39:30 UTC