- From: andi hindle <andih@harlequin.com>
- Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 10:52:20 +0000
- To: kimm@mediainfo.com, www-style@w3.org
Hi At 17:03 18/11/96 -0600, you wrote: >I'm doing some research on CSS and am interested to find out more about >people's opinions on if and how soon CSS will become standard on the >web. So a few questions: Well, here are some opinions -- I would be equally interested in any hard data on answer to these questions, but I suspect that it may be pretty hard to come by! >3. Do you think that when CSS are a standard most web sites will adopt >them, or just web sites that are art/style oriented? > >4. If most sites do adopt them, will it be immediate, or will it take a >year or more for CSS to really become standard? My suspicion is that the wholesale adoption of style-sheets hinges on how easy they are to use. Take Frames for instance. When Frames first came out, they were pretty rare -- HTML writers for the web then didn't understand Frames and didn't have the time to learn how they worked (I don't mean to start a thread about the validity or otherwise of Frames, here, BTW! ;) ). Then, some HTML editing packages produced Frame Editors -- now it was easy to make Frames, so lots of people did them. In the case of Java (which you mention in your final paragraph), well, I guess Java was pretty hyped by SUN before it came out as the big new thing on the web. But it's interesting to note that up until really very recently, _most_ java applets on the Web have been 'jumping-beans' style animations. Same learning problem -- but tools like Aimtech's recently-released Jamba may well change that, slowly. With CSS, I think that people are now beginning to talk more about it : I see a fair number of posts on Webthings lists which start off with statements like 'When we finally get Style Sheets, you'll be able to do this. For now...' I can't really comment on the position of companies like Netscape, but... >5. Do you think the average surfer is going to take the time to learn >enough about CSS to override an author's sheet? I think this is also a usability issue. _If_ the UA can offer an easy-to-use customising interface to allow people to design their own style-sheets and _if_ it's possible to communicate the strengths and uses of style-sheets, then yes. On the other hand -- I would suggest that a lot of people like to see what a given website designer has done in terms of _design_, rather than just looking for information. Style Sheets will potentially give designers a great deal more control over design and layout than is currently possible without compromising the core values of HTML. So I wonder how many surfers will want to override? >Any opinions, facts, reactions would be greatly appreciated. As I said at the top, these are merely opinions! ;) Cheers --&e
Received on Tuesday, 19 November 1996 05:45:56 UTC