RE: is anyone interested in XHTML?

In one designer/publisher's humble opinion, The two groups of publishers
and designers are merging, as this is what the web is all about.  Right now
most designers have the choice of:

1) designing for one browser and limiting their audience
2) designing for the lowest common denominator and forgoing most style
3) putting a _lot_ more effort into cross-browser implementations than it
   takes to maintain style and markup seperately.

Web design is now mostly about cross-publishing and rebuilding your site
every few months (adding little value to the content) just to make it work
in the latest browser.  Meanwhile, as Maury points out, the tools for this
endeavor lag far behind.  I am working on my own system to bring all the
components together in a nice front end, and who knows, maybe it'll even be
marketable (though I'm trying to stay non-profit; I do this for fun, folks).
I like the idea of, "design once, deliver infinite possibilities."  (Hm, as
a slogan, it needs some work :)

I apologize for often straying off-topic in this (and other) groups, and if
anyone can point me to a discussion by others integrating XML, XSLT, CSS,
WML and other common markup languages, scripting, HTTP, and databases, for
accessible and customizable application across platforms and devices, I
would
appreciate it.  Remember, although few people know of what goes on behind
their modems, most of these _already_ come together in the one place we are
trying to affect and have the least control: the user's mind.

> The world essentially falls into two groups, those trying to "cross
> publish" (tech pubs and such) and those trying to get the most out of the
> medium (designers).  For the former XHTML/CSS (et all) are a great idea
> because it allows them to move their single source to multiple endpoints.
> These people aren't looking for precise control either, even if the medium
> in question allows it.  As long as the information gets out there,
correct,
> then that's a good first pass.
>
>   However the web is currently built by the later group. For these people
> the extra weight of the style system is nothing but added complexity.  The
> necessity to do one task in two places actually makes the job much harder,
> and the advantages of reuse are not really important to them.  Some will
> counter that the abilities of CSS to precisely define certain attributes
> (say position) will make it important to the designer, but this really
> sidesteps the point - those attributes are controlled in CSS and not in
HTML
> because someone else said that's the way it would be.
>
>   The biggest problem appears to be the tools.  I think that as the tools
> blur the line between style and content then this "collective yawn" might
go
> away and people will start using it without even knowing it.  Sadly
WYSIWYG
> HTML tools have been out for years now, and they are all still pretty much
> bad for one reason or another.
>
> Maury

Received on Thursday, 17 February 2000 10:30:51 UTC