Re: Linking CSS to XML - syntax?

Todd Fahrner wrote:
> 
> Thus spake Frank Boumphrey :
> > Todd asked
> " >>? What is the state of specification in this area?
> "
> " Linking an XML document to a style sheet is discussed in a note written by
> " James Clarke found at
> "
> " http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-xml-stylesheet

> Its status as a Note rather than as a Recommendation seems to have it
> moored in discussion-land.
> 
> Is there any controversy about the soundness of this approach? 

It seems not, except that some people do not like PIs. I am not aware of
any substantive problems, since everything possible with the HTML 4.0
style sheet linking mechanism is replicated.

> If not,
> what's the process for getting it promoted to Rec status? Too short and
> simple, perhaps?

The process is to discuss it and ensure that any problems are identified
and corrected before it gets to Propsed Recommendation status. With this
partuicular item, if anyone has problems with the technical content I
urge them to say so sooner rather than later.

--
Chris


> It seems to me that the main bottleneck to real-world XML applications on
> clients at this point is the display question. 

Wel there are lots of things that can be done with XML without
displaying it. On the other hand, we have probably seen so many
non-display XML applications precisely because there have not been good,
general, widely implemented solutions for XML display.

> It also seems to me that CSS
> implementations would tend to get a lot better if the expectation became
> that they must handle display of XML documents, without necessary
> transformation first into some flavor of HTML, well-formed or not.

Yes, I can only agree. 

I took quick straw polls at a couple of recent conferences, asking if
people would like the server to munge XML into HTML for them or if they
would rather get their hands on the actual XML. An overwhelming majority
would rather be served the xml and have it styled on the client (and do
other stuff with it, too) rather than have some scrappy HTML served up.

--
Chris

Received on Sunday, 27 September 1998 12:34:31 UTC