Re: Feedback on Media Queries CR

Also sprach Art.Barstow@nokia.com:

 > Some feedback/questions regarding the Media Queries CR:
 > 
 >  http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/CR-css3-mediaqueries-20020708/
 >
 > Given the W3C has already developed a framework (CC/PP) for
 > describing device capabilities (to be used by a server to
 > generate appropriate content), why did the CSS WG ignore this 
 > work and develop yet another, competing solution?

Thanks for your feedback. Media Queries are different in several
respects. First, the communication goes the other way and the client
(rather than the server) makes the decision on what style sheet to
use. I think there is room for both a client-based and a server-based
solution. Second, the work on Media Queries is continued from HTML4
where section 6.13 sketches a solution [1] very close to Media
Queries. So, the "solution" was developed before the work on CC/PP
started and should not be interpreted as hostile to CC/PP.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-html40-19980424/types.html#h-6.13

 > A design principle in section 2.4 of the CSS2 spec:
 > 
 >  http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/intro.html#q6
 > 
 > says CSS2 is device independent:
 > 
 > [[
 > Vendor, platform, and device independence. Style sheets enable 
 > documents to remain vendor, platform, and device independent. 
 > ...
 > ]]
 > 
 > yet Media Queries break this principle by adding device *dependent*
 > data to a document.  Why did the CSS WG break this very important 
 > design principle?

Media queries encourages *documents* to remain device independent,
while the *style sheet* is not. This way, the style sheets shield
documents and encourage content reuse.

Cheers,

-h&kon
              Håkon Wium Lie                          cto °þe®ª
howcome@opera.com                  http://people.opera.com/howcome

Received on Wednesday, 17 July 2002 18:18:04 UTC