Re: DSSSL style editing (was: RE: Positioning...)

>With HTML I can create a page in Emacs post and post it to my web server.
>Then John can download it with Netscape Gold, edit it, and post it back to
>the web server. Then Steve can download it and edit it with PageMill and post
>it back. Then Andrea can download it, modify it with FrontPage and post it
>back.

have you ever actually *done* this? For anything other than the most
trivial HTML, I think oyu'd be surprised at the results!!

>I expect that eventually, we will be able to do the same thing with
>HTML+CSS or even XML+CSS. 

Perhaps. Though JavaScript, embedded styles, applets, frames, and all
these other fun things are making it much harder to write an
HTML-authoring tool than writing a DSSSL based one.

>I don't think this will ever be possible with XML+DSSSL. 

Why not? I think it is trivial technologically, though you do need a
certain knowledge of efficient functional language implementation.
Certainly a lot easier than support JavaScript, Java, ActiveX, and
HTML de jour.

>I think this ability to for users on different platforms with
>different software to share not only viewing of documents, but
>editing of documents is one of the key reasons for the success of the
>web. I would bet a large percentage of the pages posted by
>individuals are modified versions of somebody else's pages, often
>created with different tools. 

I think you're wrong here, dead wrong. I think the WWW succeeded
because it was free, easy to enter, and cool, and many new players
enter for exactly those reasons.

Now it just so happens that people who entered earlier are stuck with
managing the beast, and they are finding it expensive, difficult, but
still very cool. It will get harder to manage *unless* we have things
like XML+DSSSL, mark my words.

Received on Wednesday, 5 February 1997 08:47:32 UTC