RE: Heads up: comments from CSS WG on XForms *are* coming...

Here is something I have been thinking about that you might want to talk
about with the CSS WG (unless a decent solution is presented).

It would be nice to be able to have a flow, or managed layout, to form
UI elements much like HTML authors are accustomed to today. Currently,
most form designs are using hidden tables to align field captions,
hints, and alerts. It would be nice, for example, to use CSS2's table
caption-side property to specify the position of the xforms caption
element relative to its control element. 

In a server-side processor that accepts xhtml+css+xforms and generates
xhtml+css, how could one make nice, neat columns of captions and
controls? Using the xhtml host document, it is still possible to put
text labels and the xforms controls inside table columns, but the
caption child element is still required. 

In general, if xforms is the abstract representation of the form, how
can a designer have fine control over layout using xhtml & css
particularly when it comes to UI elements that are tightly related to
one another such as the caption and hint (and potentially alert and
help) children?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: thierry michel [mailto:tmichel@w3.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 1:31 PM
> To: Bert Bos; www-forms@w3.org
> Cc: w3c-css-wg@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Heads up: comments from CSS WG on XForms *are* coming...
> 
> 
> Bert,
> 
> Thank you for your comment.
> It is included in our
> Last Call Responses tracking document
> http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/Group/LastCallResponses.html
> 
> We have also organized a 2 hours slot Meeting with CSS WG to 
> coordinate CSS
> and XForms
> on  Friday March 1th at  13:30-15:30
> as mentionned in the Xforms F2F Agenda
> http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/Group/2002/f2f-Cannes/Overview.html
> 
> We will be answering Last call comments starting thrusday morning.
> Therefore you must to provide your comments before Thursday, Feb 28.
> but if you can provide earlier, please do ...
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bert Bos" <bert@w3.org>
> To: <www-forms-editor@w3.org>
> Cc: <w3c-css-wg@w3.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 2:15 PM
> Subject: Heads up: comments from CSS WG on XForms *are* coming...
> 
> 
> > Hello XForms WG,
> >
> > The CSS WG has some comments on the "XForms 1.0" WD, but we won't be
> > able to reach consensus on them this week. Below is a list of the
> > things we have been talking about so far, but we may not 
> retain all of
> > them and we haven't decided the wording of them either.
> >
> > If possible, we would like to use the face-to-face next week to
> > finalize the comments and take the opportunity to talk to 
> some of you
> > about them as well, if some XForms people are present on Tuesday.
> >
> > (It would also be a good opportunity to build some shared vision of
> > how the UI of an XForm should be constructed out of XForms 
> mark-up and
> > style sheets.)
> >
> > We will make sure you get the final comments before 
> Thursday, Feb 28.
> > Is that OK?
> >
> > 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------
> >
> >
> > (from 
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-css-wg/2002JanMar/0231.html)
> >
> > 1) CR exit criteria too weak. Cf. the "Selectors" exit criteria:
> > http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Test/CSS3/Selectors/current/
> >
> >
> >
> > (from 
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-css-wg/2002JanMar/0135.html)
> >
> > 2) The selectMany and selectOne controls should be merged.
> >
> > 3) ... and should have control over minimum and maximum number of
> > selected items.
> >
> > 4) checkbox" and "radio" style hints should be merged, 
> since they are
> > not a style, but dictated by whether min-select = max-select = 1.
> >
> > 5) ... or radio should not be a valid choice on selectMany and
> > checkbox not a choice for selectOne
> >
> >
> >
> > (from 
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-css-wg/2002JanMar/0250.html)
> >
> > 6) HTTP GET should not be deprecated, as its semantics cannot be
> > reproduced by POST.
> >
> > 7) Grammar error: "they" referring to a singular referent.
> >
> > 8) Automatic selection of UI widget based on datatype of 
> INPUT element
> > is not realistic, since datatypes can be user-defined.
> >
> > 9) ID attribute is missing from "common attributes"
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On behalf of the CSS WG,
> >
> > Bert
> > --
> >   Bert Bos                                ( W 3 C ) 
http://www.w3.org/
>   http://www.w3.org/people/bos/                              W3C/INRIA
>   bert@w3.org                             2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP 93
>   +33 (0)4 92 38 76 92            06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France
>