Re: W3C Core Styles

Thus spake Paul Prescod:
 
> Unless my memory is very foggy, there is no way to indicate in CSS1 that
> a particular element is meant to be a hyperlink, a table, a form input
> or other kinds of complex display type.

I confess I hadn't thought of this. While tables are in CSS2, I don't know
enough about XML's linking facilities (nor anything about forms) to rejoin
the argument. In any case, I have never asserted that CSS (1 or 2) should
be adequate for all of XML's presentational needs.

> People in XML-land aren't
> content to go without tables, forms and hyperlinks. So Microsoft's
> "HTML/CSS flow objects" are not at all nonsensical. Eventually CSS may
> be powerful enough to express these things itself or XSL may have its
> own, well-defined, non-HTML set of flow objects based on a combination
> of DSSSL and CSS.

I'd really love to see these developed and implemented soon, whether under
the CSS or XSL banner I don't care, so long as the formatting models tend
toward convergence. I think this must happen before "Dynamic HTML" (flat,
flabby HTML 4.0 Transitional markup, inline "atomist" CSS, and script)
crystallizes as the de facto standard for XML display. What you can do with
it easily is good, but not good enough; what you can do with some
difficulty is better, but too dependent on the transmission and execution
of (verbose) script; and what's just impossible will likely remain so,
because your average Office user won't demand it.

__________________
Todd Fahrner
mailto:fahrner@pobox.com

Received on Thursday, 19 February 1998 12:35:27 UTC