Savng proposal

Here is a really sketchy proposal for either XHTML or CSS3:

     When you're viewing an XHTML page on the net (not yet!), you
might be viewing a news article, or product spec, etc.  Chances are
that lots of junk is on the page, like table formatting, which even
shouldn't be there.  Even if there is no table formatting, there might
be CSS formatting (the good kind).  The user could possibly want to
save the page onto the local system.  Well, he or she probably doesn't
want any formatting stored with it: you usually just want the "meat". 
For example, I'm guessing that the articles on CNN.com are about 70%
formatting; the article body doesn't take up much space.  Wouldn't it
be nice to be able to save the document meat without the junk that's
around it?  Why not add an attribute to most XHTML elements or a CSS
property to describe whether an element is included in a save?  There
are many issues to think about not the least of which is retaining the
document validity (that I'm hoping was originally there):

--When you save the document, I hope the DTD doesn't just go to the
trash.  This could be resolved by saving the document as an XML
fragment, but I don't know if that's possible because the XMLfrag spec
isn't out yet.

This seems related to the "databinding" feature in MSIE4/5. It's like
the reverse of it.  I noticed that the HTML4 DTD has some reserved
attributes for data binding.  Hopefully, databinding will be discussed
for XHTML modules, keeping in mind the XMLfrag spec.

If it's for CSS3 (which I suggest it shouldn't be), the following
syntax:

'save-inclusion' or just 'inclusion' or whatever...
	Value:  omit | include (or prompt?)
	Initial: include ????
	Applies to:  all elements
	Inherited:  hmmmmmm...... interesting.
	Percentages:  n/a
	Media:  Everything except print
*Similar syntax in XHTML*
I want criticism; I don't care if it's bad, just no personal shots!



Ghadi Shayban
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

Received on Thursday, 25 February 1999 21:41:14 UTC