Re: Re:When will CSS rule?

At 10:07 AM 11/20/96 -0500, Steve Knoblock wrote:
>I agree with all these points. We may not be able to get the browser
>developers to implement them. Maybe MS is listening. I know they have a SGML
>backend for Word.

Microsoft also uses SGML massively in-house.

>>Why? It is no harder to parse <POEM> than <DIV CLASS=POEM>. Neither requires
>>a browser update. They just require a style sheet to describe how to display
>>them.
>>
>
>I think Carl's concern is that SGML does not specify the way an element
>should be displayed. If there were no style sheet present, then browser
>developers would have to reinvent tags soup. But I think the very fact that
>you could create an infinite number of variations on elements with SGML
>makes a style sheet a necessary prerequisite for deploying SGML on the web.

That is true. SGML without a style sheet is basically unreadable. But I
expect the text-mode browser vendors to be on the cutting edge of generic
SGML deployment. So it will only be the WYSIWYG vendors (who have no excuse)
who will hold us back.

>>HTML could never turn into SGML. It wouldn't make sense. But the "standard
>>language" of the Web could turn into SGML. This process is under way.
>
>That process scares me a bit. Will the DTD have to be downloaded with each
>document? 

No. You no longer need the DTD to display the document. You just need the
stylesheet. This is described at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR/WD-xml-961114.html

 Paul Prescod
---
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Received on Wednesday, 20 November 1996 11:45:54 UTC