RE: XHTML documents + XSL (or CSS) stylesheets

At 12:40 PM 7/26/00 -0700, Larry Masinter wrote:
>An XML document labelled as text/xml or application/xml might contain
>namespace declarations, stylesheet-linking PIs, schema information,
>or other declarations that might be used to suggest how the document
>is to be processed. For example, a document might have the XHTML
>namespace and a reference to a CSS stylesheet. Such document might
>be handled by applications that would use this information to dispatch
>to the appropriate processing.
>
>> I want to drive home the point with authors that one can't assume user
>> agents will obey these mechanisms.
>
>Why shouln't they?

For starters, because not all XML-based applications support such
mechanisms.  Namespaces aren't used or even supported by everyone, the
style sheet PI is only supported by browsers,  etc.

Authors who assume user agents will obey those mechanisms had better be
living in a closed world where they control all processing.  Otherwise,
they're very likely to be disappointed.

Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books

Received on Wednesday, 26 July 2000 15:44:44 UTC