Style sheets, styling and XForms - need fuller description and better examples

One of the deficiencies that has struck me in the current WD is the lack of 
clarity about styling information and how it is applied. The information in 
Appendix F is helpful but seems to me far from complete. Of course, some of 
the "solutions" there have yet to be defined, so I guess we are all aware 
that there is significant uncertainty over the detail of this whole area.

Several times style sheets are mentioned in the WD as apparently being the 
solution to display questions. ... And they may well be. ...  But more 
information is needed. 

There is a distinct lack of examples which address this question with, as far 
as I recall, only a couple of examples where a token class attribute is 
present.

In parallel with that there is a noticeable lack of sophistication in 
examples where layout information is provided. For example, in the first code 
example in 9.3.1 we have layout determined by an html:br element. In the next 
code example layout is determined by four html:br elements! Hardly 
sophisticated layout control.

We are told that the dimensions of, for example, the textarea element can be 
provided by a style sheet. An example would be helpful. Will the technique 
work in (X)HTML only or across presentation formats and platforms?

I know that makes writing examples a little more complex. ... Maybe it's not 
yet possible to write examples of some types. ..... But surely if style 
sheets are proposed as a/the appropriate layout/styling mechanism then their 
use should be better demonstrated. ... When including example code, it seems 
to me sensible to make it code which demonstrates good practice.

It is also far from clear to me whether style sheets (the type is nowhere 
specified) can provide sufficient styling information for non-XHTML 
implementations and for non-desktop implementations. Again further 
information would improve clarity.

Andrew Watt

Received on Wednesday, 4 September 2002 07:34:44 UTC