Re: CSS & DSSSL together (Was: Re: <insert> and external entity

Jay Bazuzi writes:

> Earlier, "Benjamin C. W. Sittler" <bsittler@mailhost.nmt.edu> wrote:

> > A style and semantics language like dsssl could solve this, at least
> > for a known DTD. Each DTD can refer to a dsssl program which renders
> > it.

> I've seen on the W3C web site that "the industry" has committed to
> support CSS.  This sounds great -- the need for style sheets on the
> Web is dire.  However, DSSSL allows an advanced UA to present any SGML
> document (with DTD & DSSSL sheet) to the user in an appropriate
> fasion.  I think that entry-level users are more likely to embrace
> CSS's simplicity that DSSSL's power and flexibility.  

I agree that CSS was designed to be fairly simple for authors to use.
I have read about DSSL but seen few examples of a DSSL application so I 
don't know if it is signicicantly harder to write.

> I'm imagining a tool which uses a style sheet mechanism on general
> SGML, and would like it to be useful for HTML Web authors.  Hence a
> dilemma of which style sheet to use.  

At the W3C stylesheets workshop at Versailles in November 95 several 
proponents of DSSSL stated that anything CSS could do, a DSSSL application 
could be made to do.

So, using CSS gives a clear upgrade path if DSSSL turns out to be more useful.
It also means that CSS stylesheets should be readilly convertible to DSSSL on 
the fly by a  a DSSSL-based browsing tool.

> It occurs to me that the tool
> could use DSSSL to interpret the document symatically (figure out an
> IMG), and use CSS to specify presentation preferences. 

Yes, that should work.
 
>  UA's which only want to do HTML wouldn't need DSSSL support 

I wouldn't go that far. DSSSL could well be useful with HTML too.

-- 
Chris Lilley, Technical Author and JISC representative to W3C 
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Manchester and North Training & Education Centre   ( MAN T&EC )  |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Computer Graphics Unit,             Email: Chris.Lilley@mcc.ac.uk |
| Manchester Computing Centre,        Voice: +44 161 275 6045       |
| Oxford Road, Manchester, UK.          Fax: +44 161 275 6040       |
| M13 9PL                            BioMOO: ChrisL                 |
| Timezone: UTC        URI: http://info.mcc.ac.uk/CGU/staff/lilley/ | 
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

Received on Wednesday, 20 March 1996 15:15:35 UTC