- From: Didier PH Martin <martind@netfolder.com>
- Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 10:17:23 -0400 (EDT)
- To: "'Håkon Wium Lie'" <howcome@opera.com>, "'Elliotte Rusty Harold'" <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>
- Cc: <www-tag@w3.org>, <www-style@w3.org>, <w3c-css-wg@w3.org>
Hi Håkon Håkon said: How do you express that some text is a headline in XSL-FO? Or that some string is a variable? Consider one example from Braille renderings. Since Braille characters use much space, words are often contracted to fit more text on one page. However, some words -- for example program variables -- should not be contracted. HTML gives you the ability to express this (using the VAR element) and this is crucial to improve Braille renderings. XFO, on the other hand, gives access to the text but information that can be used to decide if a word can be contracted or not is lost. The sematics of HTML may be shallow, but it's just enough to enable non-visual presentations which is critical for universal accessibility. Didier replies: I agree with Håkon, XSL_FO has all the characteristics of a rendering language. Its basic model is based on _formatting_ objects. Objects similar to DSSSL formatting objects. The root object is a page and this page contains other formatting objects. We do not have this kind of distinction in HTML where the root object is an HTML element that could be match to whatever rendering object you may want. It could be match to an aural dialog, a tactile braille object or an SVG, DHTML(1), or whatever visual rendering language that can be used to render an HTML document. Conclusion: an HTML document is more abstract than an XSLT-FO document. XSL-FO is definitively a rendering language used to specify rendering/formatting objects. I understand that most browser since mosaic implemented a visual rendition model but this is only an implementation not an inherent characteristic of HTML. HTML element are not rendering object but they could be matched with visual, tactile or aural rendering objects with or without a rendition specification like CSS or XSLT. We can also say the same thing of XHTML. (1) I mean the visual model, the one used in actual browsers. Cheers Didier PH Martin
Received on Monday, 19 August 2002 07:50:08 UTC